


Suitable Arrangement

by ladysparkles



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Lawyers, M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-21
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-02-14 02:19:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 27,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2174337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladysparkles/pseuds/ladysparkles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As a lawyer in Chicago, Erik has made an impressive name for himself as being aggressive and intimidating in the courtroom and in real life. He takes a chance on hiring an associate who appears to be his polar opposite. Charles challenges Erik's way of thinking and in turn Erik pushes Charles to lengths he's never been before.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Resume

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing in quite a while and my first time posting here ever. Apologies if my writing comes off rusty or dry. My chapters are typically a little on the shorter side than most others, but I'll do my best to post as regularly as I can.

The morning sun was beginning to pour into the large windows of Erik’s corner office. He hadn’t wanted a corner office, but his position at the firm required him to have it so that he might better impress clients. Today the sun was shining in particular on the stack of folders that Erik was supposed to go through. _Find an associate—one who can actually work with you and put up with you_ was the instruction Erik’s boss had given to him. The partners at the law firm were tired of the lone wolf routine but at the same time there was no one who wanted to work with Erik or be responsible for finding Erik an associate.

Erik flipped through the pile. There was a dauntingly large number of applicants, as to be expected considering that law schools were churning out far more would-be lawyers than firms were hiring.

Sighing, Erik sat down and grabbed the first of the resumes. The first candidate was a Harvard grad, the next came from Stanford, and so on… each one fresh out of a prestigious law school and each one lacking legitimate work experience. How was he to select a lawyer when he could not ascertain their value based on the little information he was given? There was one last resume for Erik to read and forget. Erik held the folder against his head dramatically, pretending to divine Xavier, C’s qualifications; fresh out of an Ivy League school where he wrote for the school paper and on the debate team. There was nobody around to be amused by the charade, but at least Erik was enjoying himself. At last Erik gave in and began to read, he was going to have to hire one of these kids, might as well put in the effort to make it worth it.

Oxford? That was unexpected. Not to mention he had graduated a number of years before the applicants. Erik was optimistic that perhaps there was potential with this one. He was the only applicant with real life experience. Family law was a joke, but at least it counted for something.

Erik’s mind was more or less made up on Xavier, but nevertheless he grabbed the folders of the next five most qualified lawyers to read their cover letters. He grabbed a red pen and began to strike through sections that only served to reiterate their unimpressive educations. Not surprisingly, with all the fat cut out there was little substance. Erik was primarily interested in how they could make an argument, how they could make him believe what he didn’t. Charles Xavier’s was rather interesting in that it read more like a personal essay than formal letter. In it, he said “I know that much of the legal community looks down on family law because it lacks either prestigious cases or monetary profit. I don’t believe this, and I truly hope you don’t either. Family law forced me to control my emotions and not let them get the better of me, but it did not quash my passion for justice. In fact, I began to see the ripple effect that all actions have on innocent masses and that motivates me to use the law to help and to heal.”

_Wow,_ Erik thought as he read. _Family law is much better than I thought._ Erik began to smile, Charles had done the unthinkable, he had swayed the immutable Erik.

Erik first called the other five and asked them to come in for follow up interviews. Lastly, he called Charles.

“Hello.” A man answered.

“May I please speak to Charles Xavier?”

“This is he.” Erik could detect a hint of a British accent in the voice, must be from the Oxford education.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Erik Lehnsherr, from Frost and Associates.”

“Right, in Chicago.” Charles said.

“Would you… is it possible,” Erik was trying to find the best phrasing of the question to really test Charles. “If you are serious about this job, I’d like you to come to Chicago for an interview day after tomorrow.” Here was the first opportunity for Charles to show what kind of subordinate he could be: either he caters to Erik’s will or make a compelling argument for extended time, Erik wouldn’t tolerate anything less.

“I’d be happy to.” So he was the accommodating type.

“Good. Ten o’clock, Thursday morning. Check in at the front desk on the 35th floor. I assume you know where the office is.”

There was a pause, likely while Charles was writing down instructions. “Okay, I’ll be there. And I assume your firm will reimburse me for my travel expenses, considering that with such short notice I hardly have time to find the best deals.”

Erik laughed. “Alright, bring me your receipts when you come.”

“Sure. See you Thursday.”


	2. The Interview

Thursday morning came around and at 9:45 Charles was getting off the elevator on the 35th floor at the office of Frost and Associates. When he first took in the sight of the large and polished office it intimidated him, but also excited him that a firm like this would be interested in him.

“Hello,” he said to the girl at the reception desk. “I’m here for a job interview with Erik Lehnsherr.”

“I’ll let him know you’re here. Good luck.” She smiled at him and picked up the phone. “Mr. Lehnsherr, your ten o’clock appointment is here.”

Charles sat down and waited. A minute later a man in a gray suit came walking down the hall.

“Charles?” He asked.

Charles jumped to his feet. “That’s me.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Erik Lehnsherr.” Erik held out his hand, Charles shook it firmly, trying to overcome the height and strong presence that Erik had over Charles. “Let’s get started.”

Erik led Charles back to his office. Once they were both sitting down, he forewent a pen and paper for notes in favor of maintaining an unsettling amount of eye contact with Charles and began asking questions. “So why should I hire you?”

A question so direct would almost never be asked in an interview, let alone in the first question. Charles was taken aback, clearly Erik’s goal. He forced himself to not squirm or break eye contact and began answering. “As you likely saw from my resume, I already have a few years of experience which will be useful to you because I’m already familiar with most of the basics that others will have to learn. I’m thorough, especially with researching and asking questions. And I’m a persuasive speaker, without making people angry.” Charles added the last bit because in what he had read about Erik, he learned that Erik’s biggest—if only—flaw in the courtroom was getting too heated and lashing out. He watched Erik apprehensively wondering how Erik responded to a hint of criticism.

His only response was a slight twitch of the eyebrow. “Good to know. What are your fields of expertise, besides family law?”

“I would probably say medical ethics, intellectual property, and administrative law.”

“Why’s that? Three fields that are rather different from one another as opposed to related ones.” He said it more like a criticism than a question.

“I gravitate toward opportunities to help and protect people. With medical ethics, I can advocate for victims of malpractice or bad drug treatments. In intellectual property, I’ve learned about how to protect people’s hard work and innovation. And administrative law focuses a good deal on eliminating discrimination and unfair office policies.”

“There’s little room for a bleeding heart in the legal world.”

“I said I gravitate.” Charles repeated. “I’m not careless. I like helping people, but I work hard regardless.”

Erik nodded. “So how would you feel working for a client that is on the other side of the cases you like, a pharmaceutical company or car manufacturer? Could you handle that?”

“I could,” Charles said. “Even big companies deserve my best effort.”

Charles began to see the pattern; Erik was trying to weed out his weakness. An amateur might try to tailor his answers to be along the lines of what the interviewer wanted to hear, but Charles was sure Erik would like that even less. His best bet was to stick to his guns and defend himself best he could. He maneuvered his way around the rest of Erik’s questions with relative ease.

“Your turn. Any questions for me?” Erik asked.

Charles ran through all his standard questions that he asked every firm; how many clients do they deal with at once, what kind of tasks would he start with and how could he expect to be assigned more, what opportunities for pro bono work were there. Erik answered each question directly.

“Anything else?”

“Yes, just one.” Charles said.

“Go ahead.” Erik encouraged.

“Why am I your only interview for today?”

There was a brief flash of surprise in Erik’s eyes, which Charles took to believe he was onto something. “What makes you think that?”

“Well,” Charles began to answer. “There was nobody else in the lobby or leaving your office. When we made the appointment you didn’t mention an end time nor have you been monitoring how long this has gone. Plus, I had a hunch.”

Erik smiled. “You’re not wrong, but I’m going to decline to answer your question.”

Charles nodded, unfazed by Erik ducking the question. He figured that Erik was testing him, he just wanted Erik to know that he was onto him. “Then I hope I passed your tests. It was nice meeting you, Mr. Lehnsherr.” Charles shook Erik’s hand and walked out of the office.

Erik had a faint smile after Charles had left. He pulled out Charles file, and added a few thoughts from the interview; _smart, passionate, perceptive_.


	3. New Kid in the Office

Two weeks after the interview, Erik called Charles back.

“You’ve reached Charles Xavier.” Charles answered in a cheerful voice. “How may I help you?”

“Charles, this is Erik Lehnsherr from Frost and Associates.”

“Right.” Charles said. “Hello.”

“I’d like to offer you the position as my associate. The starting salary is one-hundred-sixty thousand a year. It comes with medical and dental insurance, vacation days and sick days and all that nonsense.”

“Wow, thank you.” Charles said. He had been thinking that Erik would go a different direction for the positioning, considering that they didn’t seem to see eye-to-eye at all during the interview.

“Are you interested?”

“You want my answer right now?”

“If you have an answer.”

Charles tried to think through the situation quickly. The money was really good and it was probably the best position he’d be offered, plus he’d get to work under the well-respected yet challenging Erik Lehnsherr. “Yes, I would be happy to work under you.”

“That’s good to hear. When can you start?”

Charles looked at his calendar. He figured that three weeks would be enough time to make apartment arrangements. “Is the first week of September okay?”

“I’ll let the recruiting director know.” Erik said. “They’ll send you the official offer for your records.”

“Thank you, Mr. Lehnsherr.”

“You can call me Erik.”

“Thank you, Erik. I’ll see you in September.”

 

* * *

 

Three weeks later Charles was getting off the elevator of the large Chicago law office. As he stepped up to the reception desk he was both more confident and more nervous than he was his first time. He just hoped that nobody would recognize that he was wearing the same suit as last time—after all, it had been over a month, wasn’t even like that was such a faux pas.

“Hi, I’m a new employee.” He said to the girl at the desk.

“Charles Xavier?” She asked.

“Yep, that’s me.” Charles nodded.

“Okay, we first need you to fill out a few forms with HR and accounting while I make sure your office is set up. Go talk to Sean; halfway down the hall on your far right. Come back here when you’re done.”

 

A half hour later when Charles arrived back at the front desk, the receptionist walked him to his office against the back wall of the floor.

“Here you are.” She waved at the space. “All your computer information has been typed up for you. You should be good to go, but if not just talk to me.”

“Thanks…” Charles began to say. “I’m sorry I don’t think I caught your name.”

“Angel.” She said with a smile.

“Thanks Angel.” Charles smiled back as she left.

 

It didn’t take long for Charles to settle into the office and arrange everything to his liking. After he was finished he sat and waited to find out what he was supposed to do next. Maybe Erik would give him an assignment. Or maybe he should find Erik and let him know that he was ready. But he didn’t remember where Erik’s office was and he was afraid of wandering around looking pathetic. Instead he focused on stacking his paper clips into neat piles.

“Don’t tell me you only have one suit.” Erik’s critical voice came ringing through Charles’ door.

Charles felt his face starting to flush. “Actually no, I have two.”

Erik scoffed and pulled a gold card out of his wallet. “Get yourself some clothes. It’s on me.”

“Th-thanks.” Charles was still in shock even as he took the card from Erik.

“Don’t mention it. I need you looking presentable for clients.”

“Is there anything else you want me to do today?”

Erik nodded. “While you’re gone I’ll have a paralegal bring up all the files for my clients for you. I want you to read them all and get up to speed.”

“I can do that.” Charles said quickly, eager for his chance to prove himself.

“Good. My office is next door, if you need me.” Charles felt foolish for not even thinking of looking at the offices immediately next to him or remembering from his last time there.

“Thank you,” he said. “I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

Erik nodded curtly and walked out.

 

After shopping for just over an hour, Charles had five additional suits in his collection. He planned on maybe buying more with his own money after his first pay check. Charles felt guilty about spending somebody else’s money on himself, but after Erik had insisted it would have seemed insubordinate not to.

When Charles got back to his office he nearly dropped his bag in shock at the number of files the paralegal had brought in. There were four piles, each one coming up to roughly Charles’ waist. It was going to take him several lifetimes to work through everything. He grabbed the first file off the stack and made himself comfortable, beginning to read.

 

* * *

 

Erik got into the office at eight the next morning. He figured he had beaten most everybody in, as he did most mornings. On the way to his office, Erik noticed the light was on in Charles office. He was moderately surprised and impressed to see Charles already there. Erik recognized the same suit as the day before; had Charles bought new suits then not bothered to even wear them? On second glance he realized that the shopping bags were still there too and Charles appeared to be sleeping. But on yet a third glance, he realized that Charles was not asleep, just very focused on the contract he was in the progress of reading.

Erik knocked on the door frame. Charles—clearly accustomed to the quiet from the past few hours—jumped.

“Sorry,” Erik said.

“It’s okay,” Charles mumbled. “You just startled me.”

When Charles looked up Erik briefly saw the dark bags forming under Charles’ eyes. “Have you been working all night?”

Charles nodded. He gestured to a number of piles of to the side. “Done with all of those. Just got this one left.” He pointed at the file on his desk

“Why?”

“I was trying to catch up. I didn’t want you to be held up by me.”

“It would have been fine. I had them organize the files by which ones were most pertinent so you could get to them first.”

Charles grinned sheepishly. “I definitely got to them.”

“I’m sure you did. Next time I’ll be sure to give you a deadline.” Erik was a mixture of flattered and alarmed by the devotion Charles showed.

“That would be nice.” Charles said, flicking his eyes back down to the file on his desk.

“Have you had breakfast?” Erik asked.

Charles shook his head, still trying to read.

“I’m taking you out to breakfast.” Erik said.

“But I might as well finish.” Charles argued.

“Honestly that’s probably not even a little important, just leave it.”

“If you insist.”

“I do.”

“Fine.” Charles stood up and followed Erik out.

Erik was having a tough time concealing his smile, he only wished that there were more people in the office to see how outstanding his associate was.


	4. Two Coffees

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that it's been so long, I've been writing awfully slowly. Many apologies.

Erik had brought Charles to a diner that was around the corner from the offices—a thankfully short walk away. Once Charles had been pulled away from what he was doing and had taken a second to think about it, it was starting to settle in just how tired he was. It was a full task just to keep his head up and eyes open now, Charles had no idea how he would be able to carry on a conversation with Erik in his current state.

Charles was staring vacantly at the wall as the waitress asked if he’d like anything to drink.

“Two coffees, please.” Erik said, ordering for the both of them.

“Sorry, did you say something?” Charles asked, finally aware of the action.

“I ordered you a coffee, is that okay?”

Charles nodded and glanced at the menu, head still too much of a haze to process his options.

“Here you go.” The waitress returned with two coffees. Charles grabbed his right away and inhaled the scent. The vapor alone got to work in his blood and brain, springing him awake. “Ready to order?” The waitress asked.

“Two eggs over easy.” Erik ordered.

“Can I have waffles, please?” Charles asked. “With whipped cream.”

The waitress nodded and skirted off. Charles added milk and sugar to his coffee and took a few sips. With the caffeine in his system, he was more alert and aware of the uncomfortable silence between him and Erik.

“Am I allowed to talk to you?” Charles asked Erik.

“As long as I like the topic.” Erik said. He smiled slightly, but still sounded pretty sincere. He left an opening, it was up to Charles to capitalize on it it.

“Where did you go to law school?”

“I graduated from Northwestern. I was originally at Berkley.”

Charles smiled. He barely knew Erik but he could already picture what a poor fit Berkley would be for Erik. “So did you not know about the culture there before you went?”

“Ah, no.” Erik laughed dryly. “I considered it the best that I could get into at the time.”

“What did you major in as an undergrad?”

“Business, how about you?”

“Political science.”  Charles had always figured that if he didn’t go into law he would work for a non-profit organization.

“Any other questions?”

Charles hesitated. There had been one thing he’d wanted to ask Erik after reading all the files, but he didn’t know if it was a good idea to ask about. “Why do you never settle cases? You take almost every single case to court even though you were given reasonable settlement offers.”

Erik didn’t flinch, he merely stared Charles down. “I don’t believe in settling. I intend to get all my clients what they deserve.”

“But when you take it to court you run the risk of losing. Don’t you think your clients would be happier with the guarantee of some over the chance of getting nothing?”

“I don’t take losing as an option, neither do my clients. And you shouldn’t either if you want to be running point on cases.”

Charles didn’t say anything, but he had a hard time seeing Erik’s point. It just seemed unreasonable. “Did you really want to hire me?”

For the first time, Erik was flustered. On some level, the answer was decidedly no. But on another level, the answer was absolutely yes. “I needed a personal associate to take on some of my responsibilities so that I can bill more hours. I’m particular, none of the associates that we already had have worked out, nor did the ones that the recruiters brought in for me. Which put the burden on me to hire somebody.” Erik gestured at Charles.

“How many associates have you been through?”

Erik sighed. “Approximately? Maybe twenty.”

“That many?” Charles jaw dropped. “H-h-how?”

“Everyone’s been useless so far. I had a hard time finding an attorney who could actually think. Think like their own person. Anything less does me no good.”

Charles understood. His odds of working out were pretty slim.

“Back to your original question, I didn’t want to hire anyone, but I wanted to hire you.” Erik summarized.

“What?”

“Like I already said, you’re smart and you’re a good thinker. I don’t think we’re going to agree much, but if you bring something new to the table, that’s valuable to me. Not to mention, you argue well. In enough time, you’ll be arguing real cases in court.”

“I have argued real cases.”

Erik scoffed. He glanced at the clock on the wall. “This has been lovely, Charles. But I really should be getting back to the office,”

“Of course.” Charles nodded. “I’ll come with you.”

“No you’re not.” Erik responded. He paid in cash and strode out of the diner. Charles scrambled to follow Erik out.

“What do you mean I’m not coming?”

“Go home, Charles.” Erik said as they stood out on the sidewalk in front of the dinner.

“I’m sorry, are you upset with my work?” Charles asked. “Did I say something?”

“God, no.” Erik said quickly. “I really appreciate the hard work you’ve put in the last...twenty-four hours. I can’t ask you to work another nine straight on top of that. You really should get some sleep.”

“Don’t worry about me.” Charles tried to argue. “I’m okay.”

Erik shook his head and hailed a cab. The car pulled up and Erik opened the door for Charles. “You’re going home and that’s final.”

Charles pouted as he got in the taxi, but it was just for show. As soon as Erik was out of view, Charles slumped against the window and awaited arriving at his apartment as eagerly as his tired mind was capable of. Spending hours on clerical level work was nothing compared to trying to hold a simple conversation with Erik. Erik was challenging and obstinate and guarded in ways that took all of Charles energy to chip away at his personality.

 

Once inside his apartment, Charles was too exhausted to even bother with removing his suit. Instead he went straight to his bed and collapsed.

 

_Often times when Charles slept he had dreams, but usually the dreams were fantastical and far too unrealistic to be thought of as anything but dreams. Tonight—or rather, today—was different. Charles was sitting at the attorney’s desk in a courtroom. This courtroom was admittedly fancier than any Charles had been in before. He was sitting in the second chair spot with Erik on his left. The courtroom was completely packed and every eye was on Erik and Charles._

_“I got this.” Erik whispered to Charles. He stood up and began to question the witness. “Is it true that you fear my client?”_

_“I don’t know what you mean.”_

_“Was she not your superior?”_

_“She is.”_

_“Did she not have firing power over you?”_

_“She did.”_

_“And were you not concerned about the state of your finances if you were to lose your job?”_

_“I was.”_

_“So then were you not afraid of my client and her power over you?”_

_“I was.”_

_Erik briefly looked back at Charles and smirked._

 

Charles woke up and right away understood exactly what his dream was telling him. Erik was intimidating, but the fear that he instilled in people was powerful. Scary, yes, but he had it in him to protect people just as Charles committed himself to doing. He could be everything that he wanted to be as a lawyer, but first he had to convince Erik that he was worth keeping.


	5. Come Hell or High Water

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, *it's been a while* since I've updated this. I got a little hung up with insecurity, work, and reading other people's stuff that I just completely forgot to work. But I'm trying to come back. Hopefully there's still a modicum of interest out there.

 

The next morning Erik and Charles were arriving in the lobby at the same time. Erik reached the elevator first, pausing to hold the door until Charles got on as well.

“Good morning.” Charles said.

Erik nodded. “Good morning. I trust you’re well rested?”

“Yes.” Charles smiled. “Thank you for giving me the day off.”

Erik didn’t want Charles getting the idea that he was the type to do favors, or worse; spread that to the rest of the office. “I didn’t give it to you, you earned it.”

“Then thank you for recognizing that I earned it.” Charles countered. He looked at Erik, eyes sparkling with determination.

Erik smiled approvingly. “You’re welcome.”

“What do you need me to do today?”

“I trust you remember what you read from the Robertson file?”

“Male nurse suing for wrongful termination?”

“Yes. I have all my notes and questions for the deposition. I’d like you to go through and type up a full list of questions.”

“When’s the deposition?” Charles asked.

“Starts tomorrow afternoon. It will take a few days to get through it all.”

“Can I come?”

Erik sighed. “I guess so. I have a lunch meeting today, I expect it to take at least a couple hours and I’ll need you to be around to answer my phone while I’m gone.”

“Should I be giving legal advice?”

“Just take messages and answer the client’s questions if they have any.”

“When do I get to go to the lunch meetings too?”

“Eventually. God knows everyone would be happier if you went instead of me.”

“Thanks,” Charles said, confident that there was a compliment in there somewhere.

The elevator reached the 35th floor, Erik and Charles started walking to their respective offices. “I’ll let you get to work on the deposition,” Erik said. “I’m trusting that you can do it without a baby-sitter.”

 

Charles had been working for a few hours on the deposition questions. Around noon, Erik knocked on Charles’ door.

“I’m heading out. You know what to do?”

Charles nodded.

“How’s the deposition going?”

“Good.” Charles said.

“That’s good to hear. Make sure you’re thorough. We’ll be in dire straits if you miss something.”

Charles’ breath caught. He knew that he had to be perfect, but he was used to family law where the stakes were lower. This could cost people millions.  “Right. I know, I’ll go over it with a fine tooth comb.”

Erik barely acknowledged Charles as he turned away and walked toward the elevator.

 

Charles had been working as hard as he possibly could for an hour when there was a knock on his door. He looked up and saw Emma Frost, the managing partner after whom the firm was named, standing by his door.

“Ms. Frost!” Charles blurted out, jumping to his feet. “What can I do for you?”

Emma smiled slyly. “I wanted to be sure that I welcomed the new associate. What’s your name, again?”

“Charles Xavier. I know they haven’t put my name on the door yet.” He joked.

“I think it’s a bit premature for that, it would be a shame to have to scratch it off.”

Charles’ face turned white immediately. “Can I do anything for you?” He asked again, voice wavering more than the first time.

“If you insist.” Emma clapped her hands together. “Why don’t you do some document review for the merger we’re overseeing.”

Charles didn’t know if he’d be able to get through that and the deposition questions. “I’m actually working on something for Erik right now.”

“I’m sure whatever he’s got you on is just busy work. This is more appropriate for an associate like you, right?”

Charles nodded.

“Good. Get it done quickly, then.”

“Of course.”

 

It took two hours to get through all of the documents he needed to in eDiscovery. He knew he wouldn’t have much more time until Erik returned and he needed to work on—or rather finish—the deposition questions as soon as possible. 

“So.” Erik’s voice pierced through the atmosphere of tense silence that Charles had enshrouded himself with while he worked. “What do you have for me?”

Charles looked up at Erik, then quickly looked down in shame. “I’m not quite done yet, I’m sorry.”

“What’s taking so long?” Erik asked.

“I’m sorry,” Charles repeated. “Emma asked me to do document review and it got me sidetracked. She wanted it right away.”

Erik crossed his arms, he looked angry but Charles wasn’t sure at whom it was directed.

“I couldn’t say no.” Charles added.

“No, I suppose you couldn’t.” Erik agreed. “Next time somebody asks you to do something when I’ve given you a job, tell them no.”

“It won’t happen.” Charles promised.

“Good. How much longer do I have to wait for what I asked you to do this morning?”

“Less than an hour, I promise.” Charles said.

“I’ll be waiting,” Erik said, walking back to his office.

Charles watched him leave and wondered how Erik’s meeting had gone. Was Erik already in a temper when he got to the office, or was it Charles’ inability to deliver that set him off?

A piece of Erik felt bad for how sharp he had been with Charles. It wasn’t really Charles’ fault, Emma had told him to prioritize her job over Erik. Maybe Charles didn’t, but Erik knew that Emma wanted to remind him that despite Charles being Erik’s associate Emma still owned him.

Erik’s computer chimed as an email from Charles came in with the deposition questions attached. “I’m sorry for the delay, here it is.”

Before even opening the document, Erik wrote back “Stop apologizing. It’s done, move on.” Then he turned his attention to the work Charles did.

 

Charles didn’t know what to do while waiting for Erik to look over his questions. He was sure Erik would have feedback, but until that point he felt pretty useless.

A few minutes later, Erik walked back into Charles’ office. “You did all that?” He asked, pointing to the computer.

“The questions? Yeah, of course.” Charles said. “Is everything okay?”

“That was… so thorough” Erik shook his head in disbelief. “Can you go through my other questions with me and do the same thing? Help me add in whatever’s missing?”

“Of course.” Charles said.

“Great. I’ll be back in a minute.” Erik ran back to his office, grabbed a few things and returned with a binder and notebook. “Mind if I sit next to you?” He asked.

“Go right ahead,” Charles said, gesturing to the other chair by the wall.

Erik pulled it next to Charles and sat down. “Please be as critical as you need to be,” he began. “Start by explaining to me how you approached the first set.”

Charles pulled out his own notes. “I noticed that you know pretty much everything that you wanted her to say, but you only ask the questions that you think get the right answers. From her perspective, it will be very different. She’ll probably only give you a tenth of what you want to hear if you just ask once. But if you keep changing the angle, you’ll definitely get the full story. It will also come off less prying. And the more indirect questions, the more comfortable she’ll feel. They’re not lawyers, they don’t respond to questions the same way you do. Not to mention, you’re focused only on what you want to hear. You could be missing out on something useful.” Charles stop himself when he realized he was rambling on about what Erik did wrong. Just because Erik asked for his advice didn’t mean Erik wanted a lecture.

Erik just smiled. “Duly noted. Let’s get to work.” He nudged Charles with his elbow.

 

It took two hours for Charles and Erik to get through the next round of questions. Erik told Charles each detail that he expected to get revealed with each question. Then they discussed at length how to be more circumspect and thorough. Erik took issue several times with the way Charles wanted to modify his work, and every time Charles reassured him that it was not insulting until Erik would relent.

The sun was going down and the rest of the office was headed home for the night. Charles glanced up and watched everyone walk by.

“Do you want to leave?” Charles asked.

Erik’s eyes flicked up, confused at first, then dismissive. “No,” he said simply. “Why? Are you getting tired?”

“No, I’m fine. I just thought maybe you kept consistent hours.” Charles said.

“I consistently work until I’m done.” Erik countered.

“That’s admirable.” Charles said, giving Erik a smile.

Erik shrugged it off. “We need to focus.”

Charles nodded and went back to typing.

 

An hour later it was Erik who broke the rhythm. “We should get dinner.”

“Really?” Charles was taken aback.

“Of course. We don’t need to starve. I’ll charge it to the firm. Do you like pizza?”

“What?” Charles tried to keep up with what Erik was thinking. “Yes, of course, I love pizza.”

Erik grabbed the phone off Charles’ desk and began to dial. It appeared he knew the phone number to the pizza place by heart. “Anything on it?” He asked Charles.

“No thank you. Just cheese is fine.”

Erik nodded to Charles and placed the order, giving them the building’s address and Charles’ extension number.

 

When the pizza arrived a half hour later, Erik went downstairs to retrieve it and Charles seized the opportunity to run out of the office. He had needed to use the restroom for the last couple hours or so but he had been unwilling to stop and excuse himself.

Charles returned just as Erik was getting back himself.

“What were you doing?” Erik asked, forgetting that people had regular needs.

“Just washing my hands.” Charles said. He had no idea why he was lying, but as bad as it was to not move for several hours he thought it would be even worse to mention it.

“Right, that makes sense.” Erik said. He held out the pizza box and lifted the top. “Go ahead, you can grab the first piece.”

Charles began to reach in, then looked, and pulled his hand out like he’d been shocked. “What the hell is this?”

“It’s pizza, you know that.”

“No this is not! This is some kind of monstrosity.”

“Dramatic much?” Erik asked.

Charles conceded and picked up a piece. “How am I suppose to fold this?”

“I don’t recommend you trying to fold it.”

“I can’t do this. It just feels wrong.” Charles whined.

“You can’t seriously not eat on principle.”

“You’re a lawyer. You should know a thing or two about principle.” Charles argued, a broad smile growing on his face.

“Eat or you’re fired.”

“I think I would have a pretty good wrongful termination case.”

“You’re being insubordinate.” Erik said, still staring daggers at Charles yet somehow he didn’t come of as truly intimidating as usual, almost like he was amused.

“Fine.” Charles sighed and took a bite.

“So was that so bad?”

“I feel like I just died.”

“Let’s get back to work, okay?”

“Alright.” Charles said. “I will continue my Fear Factor audition at another time.”

Erik rolled his eyes.

 

They worked until almost midnight. Finally there was nothing to argue over or modify.

“We’ll print this in the morning. I’d like you to come to the deposition and take notes. Please print the questions with plenty of room for writing under each one, so I can have everything in one place.”

“What notes do you want?”

“The answers and any useful observations.”

“Can do.”

“Thank you,” Erik said. He stood up and began to walk back to his office. “You can go home now. Good job today.”

“Thank you.” Charles said. He grabbed his things and went straight to the elevator.

As Erik was collecting his papers and bag he wondered how Charles was getting home. Did he live far away? Was he in a safe neighborhood? Did he know which places to avoid. Erik should have offered to call him a cab or walk him home. He hurried to the elevator and down to the lobby, but by the time he got there his associate was long gone. There wasn’t much Erik could do at this point. He made a note to himself to not be such a dick next time and also to get Charles’ phone number. No matter what Erik was fairly confident he’d see Charles at work the next day. He seemed like the kind of person who’d be hard at work come hell or high water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Absolutely no offense intended to anybody who likes Chicago style pizza. I like both New York and Chicago styles in different ways, but I know New Yorkers who throw a fit about Chicago style and vice versa. I just thought it would make for some good comedy :)


	6. The Deposition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everybody who read, liked, and commented on the last chapter! That was super duper motivating :)

The first thing that Erik said when he saw Charles the next morning was "Good, you're here."

Charles did a double take at that. "Am I that unreliable?"

"No, not that. I wasn't sure if you made it home safe."

"I'm here. I made it home. I wish I didn't have to climb three flights of stairs to get to my apartment."

"No elevator?"

"Sadly there's not." Charles began started wondering if they would commiserate over bad apartment stories.

But they didn't get to that point. The other attorney was getting off the elevator.

Erik looked away from Charles and said "Let's get to work."

Charles printed out Erik's questions and brought the gigantic binder in the conference room and sat down. Erik, the witness, and the other attorney were sitting down.

"Please get us water." Erik ordered.

Charles nodded and ran out, over to the kitchen and grabbed three water bottles. He felt like a pack mule. He dropped off the bottles on the table and asked "May I grab myself water too?"

Erik gave him a cold look and said. "Be quick about it."

Charles ran out and back as quick as he could. "Okay, I'm ready."

"Please sit down and be quiet while we get to work." Erik said, not looking at Charles.

Charles felt pretty embarrassed. He wasn't being disruptive, they weren't doing anything yet. The other attorney and the witness watched, looking as afraid as he felt.

Erik cleared his throat and began to go through his questions.

\---

By the middle of the day, they were still crawling through the questions. The questioning was about the only thing going smoothly. Erik scolded Charles for every thing imaginable; making too much noise, fidgeting too much, letting his papers get in Erik’s way and even having bad handwriting on his own paper. Charles was desperate for a break, an intermission, a fire alarm, or something.

"Can we break for lunch?" The other attorney asked.

"If we must." Erik answered.

The guests cleared the room. Charles figured that the permission didn't extend to him.

"Are you going to eat something?" Charles asked.

"In a minute." Erik said. "I would like your opinion first. How do you think it's going?"

"Oh." Charles scrambled to go through his notes. "Pretty good so far. A little slow, but I think we're getting more than enough details."

"Good, that's how I was feeling too." Erik smiled. “Something wrong? You’re frowning more than normal.”

“Have I done something to upset you?” Charles asked.

“No. Why would you ask that?”

“You’ve just seemed very frustrated with me and I don’t want to be intentionally angering you.”

Erik laughed. “Oh, my friend—sorry, I mean Charles. I thought you caught on to the act.”

Charles stared at Erik, trying to follow what was going on in his head. “Oh, you were trying to make an example out of me?”

“Are you sure you graduated law school?” Erik teased, waving his pen at Charles.

Charles started laughing he was so relieved. “What do you want me to do?” He asked.

“What you’ve been doing is great.”

“That’s just because I thought you were really mad.”

“If you don’t help me sell this, I will be really mad.” Erik said. “That motivating enough?”

Charles nodded, genuinely intimidated. “Yes, sir.”

“Good.”

“Are you going to go out for lunch? Or would you like me to get you something?”

Erik looked at his watch then at Charles. “Yes, could you please get me a turkey club from the sandwich shop across the street.” He pulled out the corporate card from his wallet and handed it to Charles. “And get something for yourself if you’d like.”

 ---

The deposition finished up about an hour before the end of the day. The guests left the building, leaving Charles and Erik alone.

“What happens now?” Charles asked.

Erik looked at his watch. “Now, I’m going home.”

“Do you want me to stay behind and transcribe or review or anything?”

“That can wait until tomorrow. You might as well go home too.”

“Really?” Charles was having a hard time wrapping his head around being permitted to leave early.

“Really, every now and then you get a short day.”

“Thank you.” Charles pulled his phone out to check the time.

“Actually before you do, can I get your personal phone number?”

“What for?”

“For when I need you to cater to my whims in the middle of the night.”

“Really?”

“No, I’m kidding. It’s just so I can get a hold of you in case of emergencies or if you’re out of the office.”

Charles was convinced and read off his number to his boss.

“Great, thanks. I promise I won’t pester you. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay and type up notes?”

“I’m positive. I don’t need them tomorrow and you shouldn’t work overtime when you don’t have to.” Erik stared at Charles and saw that his associate couldn’t be convinced to stop working. “I’m escorting you downstairs. Come on.”

Charles followed Erik out and into the elevator, down to the lobby. Erik turned to Charles and asked “where do you live? How do you get home?” The words came out far more aggressively than he intended, it must have been a reflex from the deposition.

“I live by Lincoln Park, I take the train.”

“I’m headed the same direction. Why don’t you take the cab with me?”

Charles looked around for no apparent reason. “Alright. Maybe next time you take the train with me.”

“That is not about to happen.” Erik said as the taxi was pulling up.

“Too good to spend time with the great unwashed?” Charles asked, sliding in the vehicle after Erik.

“Yes,” Erik said, smiling. “But it’s also just too inconvenient.”

Charles sat back. “Fair enough.” He didn’t know what else to say to Erik during the ride north, but Erik didn’t seem particularly perturbed.

 

The cab stopped in Charles neighborhood first. Charles turned to Erik, “Thank you very much for the ride.”

Erik nodded and smiled. “Of course.” He glanced after Charles as he walked towards his building.

Erik was greeted to the doorman as he reached his own building. It was early enough that there were still people out and about and in the hallways and elevator. A few neighbors—whom Erik would not have been able to tell apart from strangers—greeted him and he nodded curtly and moved on. Finally Erik reached his apartment and stepped inside the dark, empty, space.

In truth, Erik’s apartment was too big and lavish for his taste, but he had decided to purchase it almost as a trophy when he finally had a well enough paying job. He had no idea what he thought that would accomplish. There were at least two rooms that ended up completely wasted and on the rare nights when Erik could do more than just go to sleep, he ended up with time to ponder how pathetic his life was. His career was great, but his life outside of that was non-existent. And very devoid of people. Of friendly faces.

Of course Erik could be wrong—he probably was—about this, but he wondered if Charles felt the same way. Not that he thought that Charles’ apartment was as ostentatious as his own. He had seen how reluctant Charles had been to go home at the end of the day and how previously enthusiastic Charles had been to stay late. Maybe Charles just wanted to impress him, but maybe Charles didn’t like being home with nothing any more than Erik did.

 

Charles had managed to make himself dinner from the two things that were currently in his refrigerator, then sat down on the couch. It was too early to sleep, but there weren’t any other options for him. He didn’t have the time to get himself committed to watching a show on television or reading a book. There were plenty of bars around, but then Charles would have to spend money on drinks and best case scenario would be waking up early the next morning and sneaking to work, worst case scenario was not even making it to work, and somewhere in the middle was completely striking out. Charles was just too exhausted to entertain any of those scenarios.

All that was left, then, was to grab his notebook and journal his thoughts about the firm so far. It was surely the most boring piece of writing that anybody in the world would have come across, but it helped him to review how things were going so far. In particular, he cataloged details about his boss; what Erik liked, didn’t like, and now a new column was what did he mean when he did this or that. The list about Erik was going to prove extremely valuable he was sure.

 

Erik considered that he could always ask Charles, but Erik was so bad with casual social interaction that he’d probably end up making Charles feel put on the spot. Besides, there probably wasn’t a point. Charles was affable; he could surely go out and meet people easily. He certainly didn’t need to be bothered with Erik’s not-at-all-relatable social issues. Erik nodded to himself, confident that he reaching out to Charles would be a mistake.

 

Charles could recount multiple times each day, particularly at the beginning and end, where Charles felt like he and Erik could be good friends if they weren’t in a restrained work setting. But that wasn’t the type of thing that’s appropriate to blurt out to your boss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tiny slightly off topic shameless plug: I made my first Cherik 8tracks playlist and it is just begging for more people to listen to it and be sad with me http://8tracks.com/atugirl/you-were-always-on-my-mind
> 
> But way more importantly, thank you so much for reading! I apologize for the slow progression, but I'm trying to set the groundwork so that I can make bigger leaps later on. I have some pretty exciting things planned, but I just have to get there first.


	7. The Hunger for Success

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a bunch of things I want to say real quick.   
> First, thank you to everyone who has been reading, commenting, and liking, 101 kudos is like wow to me! So thanks!   
> Second, from here on out there will probably be a fair number of super minor characters who are not important to name after x-men characters so they'll be given random names, don't worry if you don't recognize them.   
> This chapter is a little bit inspired by my own experience with the holiday last week, but only a little :)

Charles was already in the office when Erik arrived in the morning, as he had been pretty much every morning. Erik liked that, but he wasn’t going to bother commenting on it. He didn’t want to make it into a bigger deal than it was. Erik did have to admit, however, that it was useful to have someone who was already prepared when he got there.

Erik walked into Charles’ office and sat down uninvited. “What am I doing today?” He asked.

“Other than breathing, you have a meeting with a Mr. Byrnes at noon.”

Erik smiled at the joke and nodded. “And what are you doing?”

“I typed up my notes from the deposition, but I couldn’t find to upload them.”

“I don’t know what you mean, just file them properly.”

“How come none of your cases are in the eDiscovery program?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Erik said. He knew that he had definitely heard those words before, but it wasn’t something he had cared enough to think on.

“The computer software that the firm uses to manage all of the documents.”

“I don’t like computers.” Erik said.

“Why not?”

“I don’t trust them.”

“That’s silly. Everybody has made the transition. You’ll just be inconvenienced if you continue to be so stubborn.”

“Are you volunteering to do that?”

“I suppose I am. If there’s nothing else.”

“Go ahead and do it. I don’t really care. If you need something, let me know.” Erik stood up and walked back to his office.

 

At noon Erik’s client came into his office, holding a child.

“Steve,” Erik greeted. “How are you doing? Take a seat.”

The kid said something incoherently to its father while Erik watched suspiciously.

“What’s this?” Erik asked.

“I’m sorry. This is my son. It’s take your child to work day.” Like hell it was. That kid could not be old enough to have a class that arranged a day like this. And there was no such thing at Frost and Associates.

“How lovely.” Erik lied with a tight smile.

“He won’t get in the way will he?” As if on cue, the child reached his hands out and knocked the cup of pens on Erik’s desk over. Erik grabbed his coffee and held it out of the way.

“Why don’t I have my associate come and take him off your hands?” He dialed Charles’ extension. “I need you in here for a minute.” He barked as soon as Charles picked up.

Charles came running in almost instantly. “What can I do for you?”

“Could you let…?” Erik gestured at the child.

“Ryan,” the father finished.

“Could you let Ryan play in your office while Steve and I talk business?”

“Sure.” Charles nodded. This wasn’t the order he had been hoping for, to act as babysitter, but he wasn’t about to show his disappointment. He held out his hand to Ryan, “Let’s go!”

Ryan took his hand and walked out with him.

Steve watched as they left. “Is he new?”

“No, your son is five.” Erik said.

“Very funny. Your associate.”

“Yes, he’s been here for a couple weeks.”

“He’s good with kids.”

Erik had no idea if that was true. Up until now he hadn’t even seen Charles with children and he wasn’t going to make a judgment based on a thirty second interaction. He said the only thing that came to mind. “He used to practice family law in New York.”

“That’s good to hear.”

 

Charles wasn’t entirely sure what to do with the kid in his office.

“Do you want a snack?” He offered.

“Yeah!”

“Okay, let’s find food.” Charles took his hand again and they walked to the vending machine and he bought fruit snacks and orange juice before returning to the office.

Charles returned to his work, scanning Erik’s old documents into the system, while the kid ate.

“What are you doing?” Ryan asked.

“I’m scanning all these papers. Do you want to see how it works?”

“Yeah.”

“I have a stack of papers here and I take one off and I feed it into the machine. When the paper comes out I put it in the done pile. Do you want to help?”

“Okay.”

“How about you pick up the paper and put it in the machine and I’ll take it out?”

Ryan nodded and did the first one.

Charles made sure that it went through correct. “Great job!”

“It’s fun.”

“Good, you can keep going.”

They continued the assembly line and Charles asked questions about school, sports, and videogames and got the kid talking to him.

 

After what felt like no time at all, Mr. Byrnes came into Charles’ office to retrieve his son.

“Come on, Ryan, it’s time to go.”

“But I’m having fun!”

Mr. Byrnes was clearly startled. “We’ve got to go.”

Charles leaned over and grinned at Ryan. “If you become a lawyer, you can do this all the time.”

“Okay!”

“It was nice to meet you, Ryan.” Charles said. “Thank you for helping me.”

“You’re welcome Mr. Charles.” Ryan said.

Mr. Byrnes stepped over to Charles desk and extended his hand. “Thank you for looking after him. We didn’t officially meet earlier, I’m Steve. I’m an anchor for the ABC affiliate here.”

“Nice to meet you, Steve. My name’s Charles Xavier, I’m Erik’s associate.”

“Yes, Erik spoke highly of you—well, high by Erik’s standard. I look forward to seeing you again soon. Come on Ryan, we’re going to say goodbye to Mr. Lehnsherr”

Ryan turned around as they walked out and waved at Charles. “Bye!”

Charles waved back. He sat down and got back to scanning, which was much less fun when doing it alone.

Minutes later, Erik came running into his office. Not quite running, but he urgently burst through the door. “If it weren’t inappropriate for the office, I would hug you right now.”

“Thank you?” Charles wasn’t sure what brought on such affection.

“Steve was really impressed by how good you were with the kid. He promised he’d be bringing more business our way.”

“Oh, that’s great!”

Erik grinned and high-fived Charles. “Good job. This wouldn’t be possible without you.”

“Thank you.”

Erik sat down. “What are you working on?”

“Scanning your files into the system.” Charles answered.

“For the eDiscovery?”

“Yeah.”

“And that works?”

“Yes it does.”

“Is it secure?”

“I believe so.”

“Let me help.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Let me help with the scanning.” Erik said.

“Don’t you have clients you should be billing?” Charles asked.

“Not at the moment. Come on, let me help.”

“Alright, alright.” Charles figured out an arrangement and they continued to work through the pile.

 

“I meant to ask you,” Charles said while they worked. “How come you’re going to be in late tomorrow?”

“I am?” Erik asked, feeding another paper into the scanner.

“Your schedule has you having an appointment or something tomorrow until I think 10 or so. I don’t mean to pry, if it’s a doctor or something personal.”

“Oh, shit!” Erik exclaimed, figuring out what he had. “Is that tomorrow already?”

“Is what?”

“Yom Kippur.”

Charles entered it into his computer. “Yep, it’s tomorrow.”

“Damn. Okay.”

“What is it?” Charles asked, knowing full well that he could have his computer answer that.

“The Jewish day of atonement.”

“Oh, you’re Jewish?”

“Yeah.” Erik said. “Sorry.” He added as a joke with a wink.

Charles completely missed the joke. “Why are you apologizing?”

Erik decided to push the joke further. “Because it’s a terrible thing!”

“You don’t mean that, right?” Charles asked, never dropping his complete sincerity.

Erik laughed. “Of course not. It’s something we call a joke. See if you can find _that_ in your eDiscovery software.”

Charles smiled and shrugged off Erik’s ribbing. “Why is the holiday such bad news?”

“You have to fast,” Erik explained. “From sundown the night before, to sundown the next day.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Charles said.

“Not my first rodeo.” Erik said. “But I’m still not excited by it. And that’s why I’ll be in late.”

“I’ll treat you nicely when you get back.” Charles said.

“Is this you not being nice to me?” Erik asked. “Wow, I’d hate to be around you when you’re angry.”

 

After awhile Erik got bored and returned back to his office to do “real work” and left Charles to work alone. At the end of the day, Erik stopped in Charles’ doorway and waved his arm, beckoned him out.

“No, I’m okay. I’m working.” Charles said.

Erik repeated the gesture.

Charles sat silently and watched Erik, daring him to do it again. Erik slowly curled his finger.

Charles laughed and stood to follow Erik out. “Aren’t I supposed to be slaving away all hours of the day for you?”

“God no.” Erik said. “Then people might think I can be improved. Can’t have that. I have to be the standard.”

Charles wasn’t sure if he believed that, but he didn’t argue.

 

On the street in front of the office Erik began to step into a cab as it pulled up. Charles waved goodbye to him.

“Charles.” Erik said. He was holding the door open for Charles.

“No, it’s fine.” Charles said. He was already a whole ten feet from the cab, at this point it would be a waste of time to walk all the way back.

“Come on.” Erik said.

Charles gave in and climbed into the cab next to Erik.

“If we’re going in the same direction and leaving at the same time we might as well split a cab. You can pay sometime if that would make you more amenable.”

Charles wasn’t sure how amenable he was since this was the first time the thought even came up. Erik acted like it had been a continuing discussion, maybe it had been in his own head.

 

When Charles got out of the cab at his street he waved to Erik. “Good luck tomorrow!”

 

 * * *

 

The next morning, just like the calendar said, Erik didn’t arrive until almost lunch. Everyone noticed the second Erik arrived because he got off the elevator about as angry as any person had ever been.

“Why is the other elevator out of order?” He yelled at the receptionist.

“I don’t know. Building maintenance said they’re working on it.”

“I want it fixed.” Erik snapped.

“Yes, Mr. Lehnsherr.” She said.

Charles watched Erik walk—or rather, storm—towards his own office. Erik always looked sharp, but today he looked even more so than usual, despite his ill temper. The suit was just a little more pristine, or his hair was a little more impeccable. Charles couldn’t place it, but there was definitely something that elevated his usual look.

 

Erik walked straight to his office, brushing off anybody who tried to greet him or otherwise speak to him, sat down and got to work without dallying a second. Charles could hear the brisk flipping of papers and firm clack of the keys from his chair. It seemed far louder than usual. Charles suspected that Erik might be in a worse mood than usual.

After a few hours of Erik working silently yet still audibly, Charles could hear Erik as he was yelling on the phone.

“Your client is a lying piece of shit and so are you.” Erik shouted.

Charles winced and sighed. He had something he needed to talk to Erik, but he wasn’t sure if now was the best time for it.

 

It had been a little while since Erik’s last explosion, so Charles decided to face the beast. He stepped up and knocked on the door.

“What?” Erik demanded, without lifting his eyes from his work.

“Are you busy? I can come back another time.” Charles said.

Erik looked up at Charles, who was standing calmly at his door. Erik felt bad for lashing out.

“No it’s fine. What do you need?”

“I had a potential case that I wanted to pitch to you.”

“Not now.” Erik said.

“I understand. You’re busy.” Charles said. “Can I help you with anything?”

 “Yes. I’m not in the right state of mind to be answering emails. Can you do it?”

Charles nodded. “Gladly.”

Erik moved his chair away from the computer to give Charles room to work. He collapsed his upper body onto an empty spot of the desk.

“Are you okay?” Charles asked.

“I’m so hungry.” Erik whined. “How long until sundown?”

Charles looked up the answer. “Three hours.”

Erik groaned. “I feel like I’m going to die.”

“Shouldn’t you be used to that by now? Since you’re Jewish?” Charles asked. Erik gave him a hard stare. “Wait, I mean the fasting, not the feeling like you’re going to die. I’m sorry that was terrible phrasing.”

Erik grinned. “I should be. But it sucks its own special way every year.”

“Any of them particularly memorable?” Charles asked, trying to keep Erik talking so he would be distracted.

“Yeah!” Erik laughed just at the thought. “A few years ago, I guess just after I made partner, I stupidly scheduled myself to be in court that day after I got out of services.”

“Did you get through it?”

“Barely. I had no problem with my statements and questions because I was focused. The trouble was when it was the other side’s turn for cross-examination I sat down and I was able to realize just how starving I was. And in turn I became even more belligerent than I usually am.”

“You’re belligerent? I had no idea.” Charles smiled.

“I called objections over every little thing. One of them was because I thought the lawyer was badgering my witness. He wasn’t, even my witness said it was fine. So I changed my objection to that he was badgering me by the way he was talking.”

Charles flung himself back in his chair, laughing. Erik had told that story more than a few times and it never got that sort of reaction.

“Are you trying to flatter me?” Erik asked.

Charles stopped laughing and looked at Erik, who had his eyebrows raised and arms folded skeptically. “Of course not. I just pictured being the other lawyer and it’s so scary that it’s funny.”

Erik smiled. Charles had such a pleasant enthusiasm that anyone around him could feel better.

 

When it was almost the end of the day—Erik’s day that is, everyone else’s day had been done for hours—Charles stood up and headed for the door.

“Have a good night.” Erik said.

“I’m just running an errand. I’ll be back.” Charles said.

Erik found that odd, but was not paying enough attention to question it. With Charles gone, he got back to work. He made quicker progress alone, but the absence of company affected him. Erik grew tenser even though he knew it was just the hunger talking. Who gave Charles permission to go out on an errand?

 

Charles didn’t return until minutes before the sun was down. Erik was visibly frustrated, but Charles ignored it.

“Where the fuck have you been?” Erik yelled.

“I come bearing gifts.” Charles said, holding up a box of Chinese food.

Charles had certainly never seen Erik smile so wide, it looked as if his face could have split. “How did you know?”

“I took a peek at your computer history and took a guess.”

Erik gave Charles a pat on the back, still smiling. “You are one hell of an employee.” He snatched the food from Charles and dove in. “You can go home now.”

“I’ll stay if you’re going to keep working.”

Erik eyed Charles suspiciously. He was going through an awful lot of work just to get in Erik’s good graces. But at the same time, Erik could use the extra hands and brain to help him catch up on the work. “Okay, stay. But behave.”

Charles sat down with a grin. “So about the case that I wanted to you…?” He asked with a laugh.

Erik sighed, but smiled. So much for behaving. “Tell me more about it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and all that jazz! Credit where credit is due, the "because it's a terrible thing" is from Eugene Mirman's standup God Is a 12 Year Old Boy with Asperger's (in particular it's the track titles The Will to Whatevs Book Tour...). 
> 
> Also, I am currently (and have always been) writing without any beta readers. So if you want to keep chapters like this from getting out of hand with the dialogue and lack of plot development, shoot me a message on tumblr (sparklesandstress.tumblr.com) and we'll try to arrange something.
> 
> Thanks!


	8. Early Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erik needs Charles to help him in the middle of the night. For the first time, Charles' morals are tested.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was originally hoping that this chapter would be longer, but I felt bad for not posting in over a week so I wanted to get something out faster.

The first time Erik called Charles in the middle of the night was after Charles had been his associate for a month. Charles was fast asleep when the phone rang at two in the morning.

He saw it was Erik calling and was immediately afraid of what the reason could be. “What’s going on? Is there an emergency?”

Erik sounded calm but urgent on the phone. “Not quite an emergency. But I need you right away. Can you get to Phoenix Trading as soon as possible? South LaSalle Street.”

“Sure. I’m coming right away.” Charles said, leaping out of his bed, scrambling to find clothes.

“Don’t worry about dressing professional. Just get here.”

“I’ll be out the door in five minutes.” Charles promised before hanging up.

Charles showed up to the office building in the heart of the financial district, wearing just jeans and a t-shirt. He got off the elevator on the top floor and saw a surprising number of men in suits talking amongst each other. When the men saw Charles, they all looked at him suspiciously, ready to pounce.

“This is my associate. He’s here to help me.” Erik’s calm voice rang out. Charles was relieved to see a familiar face. His boss was wearing sweatpants and despite looking like he just woke up, appeared completely put together.

“Come with me.” Erik said and brought him to a conference room that featured an impressive view of the city.

“What’s going on?” Charles asked.

Erik’s expression was stone-cold and terrifying. “First, I want to remind you that you have to keep everything that happens now completely confidential. No matter how well-intentioned you might be, you can’t tell anyone, try to warn someone or give a heads up, or act on this information on your own. If you do anything you’ll probably be disbarred, charged for insider trading, and fired. And as far as I’m concerned, our relationship would be destroyed.”

“I promise. I would never.” Charles truly had no intention to break laws, contracts, and most importantly, Erik’s trust. But the warning alone thoroughly scared him.

“Good. Long story short, our client has discovered that they are disastrously over leveraged and if the market has a bad day—which it almost certainly will—they will owe more money than they’re worth. The only solution is to sell off everything they can and not buy anything back up. You and I have to just make sure it’s legal.” Erik explained.

The particulars of the financial industry confused Charles, but he understood the ramifications. “They’re going to sell off everything?”

“Yes.”

“That will flood the market.”

“I know.”

“The people who buy it up… they’ll have toxic assets on their hands. They’ll get screwed over.”

“I know.”

“This is wrong.”

Erik sighed. “The focus here is our client. We have to do our job. I warned you that it can be hard.”

Charles nodded. “I can do this.”

“Good. We need to start with going through SEC regulations and make sure there’s nothing prohibiting what’s going on. Then we need to know what they can and can’t say to get this off their hands. And we need to make sure there are no contracts or legally binding agreements preventing them from knowingly selling off bad assets.”

“I’ll start with the SEC.”

“Great. We need to be done by six.”

 

Charles completed going through every page and paragraph with a half hour to spare. Erik was gone, doing something. Charles took the opportunity to stare out at the city. It was still dark. Everything looked bleak, Charles thought of all the people down there and in the entire country who would be hurt.

The door closed and snapped Charles out of his trance. “You’ve gotten through everything?”

“Yes.”

“You haven’t found anything to stop them.”

“No.”

“Then our work here is done.”

They left the conference room and approached the finance executives waiting.

“Well?” One asked.

“You’re good to go.” Erik answered.

“Good. Thank you.”

“And we are resigning as your legal representation effective immediately.” With that Erik led Charles to the elevator.

Back on the ground level, Erik walked so fast up the street that Charles had to almost run to catch up to him.

“Wow!” Charles said. “Can you really do that?”

“Sure. They were my client, and by the end of the day they’ll be disgraced and nearly worthless. Hardly worth sticking around to help out anyway.”

“Did you know you were going to do that the whole time?”

Erik didn’t directly answer. “They could’ve looked for a way out, a way to do things fairly and prepare for the worst. But they wanted to cheat the system the only way they still could and keep their hands clean in the process.”

“How come you didn’t quit as soon as they told you what they wanted to do?”

Erik sighed.

“Oh,” Charles said, catching on. “You wanted to try to stop them?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“I’m so sorry. I wish we were able to.”

“It’s not your fault. It’s the laws. They were made to help the big firms and now they’re going to be able to screw people over.”

Charles nodded. “We can’t do anything now, can we?”

“No.” Erik said. “It would be violation of attorney-client privilege to try to represent anybody in a class action. Like I said, we can’t warn anybody or go to the media. Our only hope is that the government decides to prosecute. And even then, there’s not much we can do to help. Besides, let’s be real, the government can’t go after them.”

Charles paused. He didn’t know what to say. “I didn’t go to law school for this,” was the first thing that came to mind. He expected Erik to be displeased with that sentiment.

“I didn’t either.” Erik said, finally slowing down his pace.

“What now?” Charles asked. He felt ill over what they just did, it was hard to even think about working for the rest of the day.

To his surprise, Erik laughed. “I just realized that I’ve got to get changed before people show up and get the wrong idea of me. Do you have a suit in your office?”

Charles had forgotten as well. “No. Should I go home? I can go home.”

“No need. I’ll buy you another suit. You should keep one a spare in your office in case of emergencies in the future.”

Charles nodded.

Erik hailed them a cab and they headed to the first tailor he could think of that would be open at the hour.

“You know you don’t have to do this.” Charles said. “Most of my clothes are off the rack. What’s one more?”

Erik gave Charles a hard stare. “You have to start taking yourself seriously as a lawyer.” He admonished. “The way you dress is part of it. Nobody’s going to stop and realize how smart you are if they look at you and see a kid who’s in over his head.”

Charles nodded. “I’ll try to get better.”

“Good. You’ll get there. You’ve got a long career ahead of you.”

“Thanks. For everything.”

 ---

Charles exited the tailor, feeling like a new man as he wore the nicest suit he had every put on in his adult life, with Erik alongside him, still in sweatpants.

“Ever been to the roof of the building?” Erik asked Charles.

“No.”

“Then let’s go.”

They returned to home base and took the elevator all the way up to the roof. Charles could nearly feel himself get lightheaded from the altitude. The morning air was chilly, but had never experienced a sight like that before. The sun was still rising and from the height it illuminated the architecture of the city and made it look picturesque. It had a glimmer of hope to it.

“Do you come up here a lot?” Charles asked.

“Sometimes.” Erik answered. “When I have early mornings or late nights.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“I suppose.” Erik said.

Erik was quiet, Charles wondered what was going on in that mind. “You know, you never told me why you became a lawyer.”

“Same reason everybody becomes a lawyer.”

Charles wasn’t sure what that reason was, but he didn’t believe Erik would be motivated by money. “And what reason is that?”

“I hate bullies.” Erik said. “This is the only career built on fighting back and making people pay for hurting someone else.”

“I don’t think everybody is as altruistic as you.”

“What’s your reason, again? I forgot.”

“I wanted to help people.”

“How about that.” Erik said, smirking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On this episode of "credit where credit is due", the idea for the firm's story came from the movie Margin Call. The firm name Phoenix Trading is sort of a joke since there's an actual firm called Wolverine Trading but I wanted to stay away from using a real company's name.
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading! I look forward to reading any and all feedback!


	9. Long-Distance Partnership

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many apologies for the how long the wait has been. I've been travelling so much and when not travelling, up to my nose in work. I am trying to buckle down into something resembling a plot.

“Hey I’ve got a fun assignment for you if you’re interested.” Erik said to Charles.

“I’m always interested.” Charles responded.

“I need you to go to the courthouse and meet with one of the assistant district attorneys about a case.”

“That does sound fun.” Charles said, oblivious to how tedious speaking with a public servant can be. “What case?”

“Wrongful death suit. Our client was charged with manslaughter for hitting a pedestrian with his car and killing him. The grand jury declined to indict him, but the family is now suing in civil court.”

“And we need the district attorney?”

“Since the case never made it past grand jury, we didn’t need to go over evidence or witnesses, but now we have to work double time to catch up to the plaintiff attorney. So I want you to talk to someone in the office and have them go over the evidence that they presented to the grand jury.”

“Can’t we just subpoena it?”

“The evidence, yes, but not the opinions and insight. I’d like to know what’s actually useful before we start wasting our time.”

“Sure, I’d be happy to. When should I go?”

“You’re appointment is in an hour.”

“Oh, you already scheduled it?”

“I was pretty sure you would agree.”

Charles nodded. “Well, I’m looking forward to it.” He said.

 

 * * *

 

Charles stepped into the district attorney’s office and was nearly taken aback by the contrast from Frost and Associates. The building was rundown but old and dignified unlike the firm which was state of the art and pristine. The office was chaotic and noisy, unlike the order and precision of the firm.

“Excuse me,” Charles said to the young man sitting at the desk. “I’m Charles Xavier, from Frost and Associates. I’m here to—“

“MacTaggert!” The man said, cutting Charles off. “Your appointment is here.”

A woman who appeared close to the same as age as Charles walked up. “Hello, I’m Moira MacTaggert. I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“Charles Xavier.”

“Nice to meet you. Would you like to speak in my office?”

“Yes, that would be great, Ms. MacTaggert.” Charles said.

“You can call me Moira.” She said as she led him back to her office, where it was slightly quieter. “I don’t believe I’ve ever seen you around before. Are you new?”

Charles chuckled. It seemed like everywhere he went people asked him if he was new. He still had that look, apparently “Yes.”

“It’s nice to meet you.” Moira said. “Are you Ms. Frost’s associate?”

“No, actually, I’m Erik’s.”

“Oh!” Moira gasped a little. “Well, he’s brilliant. Thankfully, I’ve never personally gone up against him. Not sure if I would have the nerve.”

Charles laughed. He could relate to that feeling.

 

 * * *

Moira went over all the details of the case with Charles, and made sure not to send him back out empty handed.

“I really appreciate this.” Charles said.

“My pleasure.” Moira said. “I think you’re on the right side. The guy doesn’t need to be punished for this.”

Charles nodded in agreement. “Hey, would you ever want to get drinks or anything sometime?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Charles.” Moira said. “I have a boyfriend.”

“No, I didn’t mean like that!” Charles said. “I’m gay, I’m not trying to seduce you, I promise. I just don’t have any friends in the city yet.”

Moira’s eyes widened. “God, I’m so sorry. I must sound so stuck-up.”

Charles smiled. “It’s okay, I didn’t mean to give the wrong impression. Is it still a no?”

“No of course not. I’d be happy to go out sometime.” Moira said. She grabbed a folder out of Charles’ hand and scribbled her phone number on the inside. “Give me a call whenever.”

“Thanks.” Charles said. “It was nice meeting you.”

“It was nice meeting you too.” Moira said.

 

* * * 

 

Charles got back to the office and Erik was busy having a conversation with Emma.

“I don’t think you ever told me.” Erik said.

“I did tell you. These are the emails with your acknowledgements and the note on your calendar before you removed it.” She slapped down papers on his desk.

Erik barely moved his eyes to glance at the evidence before declaring “That looks made up.”

“Erik, you’re going.” Emma said.

“Can’t.” Erik said. “Didn’t make travel arrangements.”

“I called the agency and had them made for you. Nice try.”

Erik visibly pouted. “Okay, fine.”

“Good.” Emma said. “Please actually talk to people this time.” She reminded him, referring to the last time Erik was sent to a conference and essentially only showed up and never spoke to anybody.

 

After Emma left, Charles entered Erik’s office.

“So where are you going tomorrow?”

“Tucson. Testament to man’s ignorance.” Erik replied.

“What for?”

“I have to go to a conference on disability advocacy in law.” Erik made no effort at concealing the disgust in his voice.

“What’s wrong with that?”

“I hate conferences. They’re a miserable, loud, ineffective waste of everybody’s time. I’d rather stay here and keep working with you.”

“I’m flattered.” Charles joked. “I’ll hold down the fort while you’re gone.”

“Good. Can you follow up on all the previous evidence and interviews in the new case? See if there’s anything either side missed.”

“Yes, absolutely.”

“Call me if you need help or want to talk about anything.”

“I will.”

“No, really, call me as much as you want.”

“Are you trying to use me to get out of going to the conference?” Charles asked.

“I don’t know why you think I would possibly do that.” Erik joked. “Is that from the grand jury hearing?” He asked, referring to the files Charles was still holding onto to.

“Yes, did you want to see them?”

“Yes please. I’d like to take a look before I leave just to familiarize myself.”

Charles nodded and passed the papers over, then left Erik to his work.

 

* * *

 

Erik knocked on Charles’ door. “I’m done with all the notes if you want them back.” He offered.

Charles nodded. “Were the big boy words not too hard for you?” He attempted to joke, immediately regretting how unnecessarily mean he sounded.

Erik, too, noticed Charles’ strange remark and raised his eyebrows. “No, that was fine. I was surprised to find a girl’s number written down.”

“Oh that’s just Moira, the ADA. We hit it off pretty well.”

“I have to warn you about getting romantically involved with someone who could oppose in court.”

“I wouldn’t! I’m not even interested in girls.” Charles blurted out before his brain could communicate to his brain that it wasn't necessary.

“Oh.” Erik said, looking taken aback. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have pressed you.”

“It’s okay. You’re the second person I’ve told today, it’s starting to feel easier.”

“That’s good to hear.” Erik said. “I promise you won’t have to deal with any change in treatment from me. But I have resources from when I came out that I can pass along to you.”

“Thank you.” Charles said. In one day he had a friend and someone to give him advice. It was nice to not feel alone.

 

* * * 

 

The woman sitting next to Erik at the panel was furiously taking notes about what was being discussed. Erik didn’t have the first clue why that was necessary, they weren’t saying anything interesting or particularly useful yet she seemed enthralled. As a welcome distraction, Erik’s phone vibrated in his lab. He looked down at it and saw Charles’ phone number displayed on the screen. Erik stepped around his seat neighbor and hurried out the door.

“I’m sorry, I hope I wasn’t interrupting anything.” Charles said as soon as Erik answered.

“You’re fine. How is it going?” Erik asked.

“Good. I found a couple instances where both the plaintiffs and witnesses have said that our client has temper issues.”

“So?” Erik asked.

“None of them have psychology degrees. I think this is something we should try to verify.”

“The problem is that if we get an expert to test our client and he finds that he does have anger issues, then it’s going to be better evidence for the plaintiff.”

“What should I do then? Isn’t it at least an avenue worth exploring?”

“It is. Of course, you’re right. Give me some time to come up with what to do. I’ll get back to you.”

“Sure.” Charles said.

“How has the rest been going? Anything useful?”

“Do you want the good news or bad first?”

“I don’t really like hearing bad news at all.” Erik said.

“The digital experts that the DA’s office used were able to get the license plates off of some cars that were around the scene at the same time, but everybody has been either unreachable or unable to provide any account.”

“And the bad news?” Erik joked.

“The _good_ news is that I corroborated the coroner’s statement that the victim had marijuana in his system and confirmed with the same coroner and another medical expert that it would impair judgement, providing more veracity to the claim that he stepped in front of a car that couldn’t possibly slow down.”

“The family is going to try to argue that the drug test was a mistake or that the kid didn’t deserve to die because he took drugs once.”

“I’m about to find any friends or acquaintances who can testify to the frequency of his drug use. But the other side of that argument runs into debates over accountability, and that depends more on being persuasive than the facts.”

“I’m prepared to handle it in court.” Erik stated confidently. “Don’t you worry about it. Is that it?”

“Yes, that’s it for now.” Charles said. “I’ll let you get back to the conference. Thank you for the advice.”

“Anytime. Call me with any other questions.”

 

 

It wasn’t until Erik was trying to go to sleep after midnight when he realized he had never answered Charles’ question about the client’s anger issues. Luckily, an answer finally clicked in his brain.

Erik had dialed the phone and was listening to it ring before it occurred to him the late hour. He considered just hanging up and calling back in the morning, but he had already gotten pretty far, he might as well leave a message for Charles when he got in or woke up.

To Erik’s surprise, after a couple rings he heard, “Hello?”

“Charles, did I wake you up?” Erik asked.

“No,” Charles said, sounding like a lie. “It’s okay, is something wrong?”

“No, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to alarm you. I just had an idea.”

“I’m listening.” Charles said.

“What I’d like you to do is track down a good psychologist who wouldn’t be familiar with the case, but preferably someone who would answer hypothetical questions without asking too many of their own, and ask some questions and see what they say. This is just background information, we don’t have to file this as discovery yet.”

“That’s really smart.” Charles said.

“Emma will be glad to know she doesn’t pay me the big bucks for nothing.” Erik joked.

Charles laughed, somewhat weakly.

“Go back to sleep, Charles.” Erik said. “I’ll talk to you in the morning.”

“Night night.” Charles murmured and hung up the phone.

 * * *

The next day Erik only made it until the morning break before he needed to call in the check on the case.

“Good morning, this is Charles Xavier. How may I help you?”

“Is that seriously how you answer your phone?”

“Oh hi Erik,” Charles said. “How’s the conference?”

“You sound like a receptionist.”

“How’s the conference?” Charles repeated.

“Boring. How’s your work going?”

“Good. A friend of mine when I was an undergrad is a clinical psychologist and more than willing to answer my questions on deep background.”

“That’s not a legal term, but okay.” Erik said. “And the diagnosis?”

“He was able to conclude that our client does not have a clinical temper issue. So while it doesn’t exclude the possibility that he was angry, I think it should be tougher to prove that he was.”

“Definitely good.” Erik said. “It’s still a tough case.”

“Why? The facts and laws are on our side."

"But the emotions aren’t. Juries will see grieving parents and they’ll vote with their hearts.”

“Can’t we have emotions on our side as well? Our client is tormented by guilt, doubt, and pain. I’ve talked to him a couple of times. His life is ruined because of this. He doesn’t know if he can move on even if he wins. This isn’t fair to put him through that much. We should have the emotions on our side because he’s the one who’s being wrongfully targeted. “

“Calm down, Charles.” Erik said. “I understand what you’re saying and you make a good point, but you can’t get yourself worked up over it.”

Charles took a deep breath and nodded even though Erik couldn’t see him. “I can do that.”

“Good. Keep gathering facts together. Stick to that.”

“Sure.”

“Don’t stress out, I’ll come up with something when I get back tomorrow.”

“I’m looking forward to it. It’s very different with you gone.”

“Different good or bad?”

Charles hesitated for a moment. “I’m used to having you around.”

“To berate you, no doubt.” Erik laughed.

“Sometimes.” Charles quipped back.

“Don’t you worry, I’ll be back and meaner than ever.” Erik said. “I’ll call you later.”

“Bye, Erik.”

 * * *

 

 * * *

 

 * * *

 

 * * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will see the case actually get argued in court!
> 
> The case is loosely based off of a real story from the last couple of years. Moira's character is loosely inspired by Rose Byrne's character on Damages. 
> 
> Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!


	10. Mile High

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charles assists Erik arguing his case in court. At the conclusion of the trial, they have a new challenge that takes them far from home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the long delay! I've been sooooo busy and only managed to get a free second over the holiday week. The slow burn continues, but I wanted to provide at least a few more inches for those who have been so patient.

 

In the days before the trial began, Charles noticed that Erik was starting to appear incrementally more haggard each day, with a worsening temper to match. Charles had no idea if that was Erik’s standard operating procedure. It was mysterious, and a little alarming, to Charles the way Erik seemed to be working all hours of the day. He was the first in every morning, and the last out along with Charles. But even when Erik was supposed to be home, presumably sleeping, he was still writing notes and emails to Charles. Charles was working as hard as he could but it was just so hard to measure up to Erik.

The night before the trial began, Erik sent Charles home when the day was over. Charles just didn’t feel right about leaving before his boss. Especially when there was such an important day ahead. And a little piece of him didn’t want to leave Erik alone.

“Are you sure you don’t need me help?” Charles asked.

“I’m positive. Go home and rest, you’ve barely slept the couple of weeks.”

“But you’re still working.”

“I want to do this alone.” Erik snapped.

“I understand.” Charles said. His feelings were hurt, but he was determined to be a good enough lawyer to not let his emotions get the better of him.

 

Erik paced around his office obsessing over arguments in his head. It wasn’t enough to just memorize the words and facts, he needed every gesture and inflection down pat as well. It required the utmost focus, but Erik found himself getting distracted. What exactly was it that Erik said to Charles before he left. Erik couldn’t remember how brief and sharp it had been. Knowing himself, he assumed it could have been really bad. Hopefully Charles would let him apologize the next day.

. . . 

Charles got to the courthouse early and waited for Erik. When he saw Erik, his heart involuntarily stopped. Erik, who had looked worn out, exhausted, and half-crazed the night before, was back to looking like a sculpture, a model for mere mortals to look up to, and a legal nightmare.

Erik smiled when he saw Charles. “Good to see you.” He said.

“That’s an improvement from last night.” Charles responded.

“I was mean? I’m sorry.” Erik said. “I got tunnel vision and I completely forgot to be reasonable.”

Charles nodded. “That makes sense. I should have realized.”

“It’s my fault not yours.” Erik said.

“You look nice.” Charles said in attempt to change the subject.

Erik stepped back to look at Charles. “You look adequate,” he assessed. “Stand up.”

Charles rose to his feet, unsure as to what Erik wanted.

Erik flicked Charles’ tie. “What, were your hands shaking too much to get this straight?”

“I guess so.” Charles said.

“Not sure what you’re nervous about, I’m the one doing all the talking.” Erik joked.

“It’s my first time in court.”

“Everything’s going to be fine.” Erik said. He busied himself with undoing Charles’ tie.

“I think this is worse than it just being crooked.” Charles pointed out.

“Shhh.” Erik said, beginning to redo the tie. “Just pay attention and let me know if I’m missing anything important.”

Charles nodded. “Anything in particular?”

“The most important thing for you to keep an eye on is the jury. I don’t have the time to pay attention to if them, I need you to make sure they’re on my side.”

“Sure, yeah I can do that.” Charles said.

“Good.” Erik said, finishing up Charles’ tie. “We’re a team, right?”

“Of course. Who would have thought you…” Charles was about to tease Erik for not being much of a team player.

“Just trust your quarterback.” Erik said.

“Of course.” Charles finished.

Erik clapped Charles on the arm. “Let’s get to work.”

 

The attorney for the plaintiff begun his opening arguments first. He reminded Charles of a used car salesman, the way he used heavy-handed emotional appeals without feeling any of the emotions himself. It didn’t really matter. The arguments were just strong enough to get his point across and that was all it took to get the jury to be swayed. He scribbled down a few notes about that and showed Erik quickly. Erik nodded but looked completely unconcerned.

Erik stood up and smoothed down his jacket. He was about to turn to the jury to start speaking when he paused and looked at the desk again. As far as Charles could tell, there wasn’t anything there that needed Erik’s attention, so he assumed that was simply an action done for show.

“Ladies and gentleman, good morning.” Erik began to say. “I hope your days are not too ruined by being here like my client’s is. Mr. Anthony wishes more than anything that he did not have to be here. Not because he doesn’t want to be sued and is afraid of losing money, but because he wishes that young Devin didn’t have to be dead. But it wasn’t up to my client that night on the highway, when Devin, high and angry, stepped in front of my client’s car. He didn’t make the choice to kill Devin, there was little he could do to stop it but he was not afforded the chance to do what he could when he was given only a split second to react. And now he’s been dragged into trial after trial to answer questions that he can’t possibly hope to. As you listen to testimonies that will appear before you, please try to consider the circumstances that this case is under. You could easily be in the same position as my client. When somebody desperate for money jumps in front of a car so that they can sue, we know they are in the wrong. This is the same here. My client was simply trying to drive home when somebody jumped in front of his car. We can’t put the person at fault on trial, but we can make sure that we don’t persecute an innocent person just for being the one who survived. Thank you.”

 

Charles watched Erik speak with something that probably looked like a moronic dumbstruck look on his face. He was fully in awe of how commanding Erik was. Yet despite being such an imposing and strong figure, Erik managed to hold much the jury by being direct and honest. He looked at each person unwaveringly and Charles could see how they felt compelled to Erik’s view.

 

…

 

The trial went on for three more days and then on the fourth day, the jury began deliberating. To Charles’ surprise, and concern, they finished deliberating in less than an hour.

Everybody reassembled in the courtroom to hear the verdict.

“We the jury find in favor of the defendant.” The foreperson said.

Erik smiled proudly and looked to the client. “Now you can try to move on.”

“Thank you, Erik. So much, you’ve really saved my life.”

Erik nodded modestly. He gestured toward Charles as well. “We both are just glad it worked out for you.”

Erik stood up to walk out of the courtroom. Charles lingered to give their client one last hug before following Erik out. By the time Charles caught up with Erik in the lobby, Erik was already talking on his phone.

“We can be there as soon as possible.” Erik was saying. “Just got done with court.” Erik paused. Charles assumed the call was something just concerning Erik, so he simply lingered nearby.

“What was that?” Charles asked.

 “Emma wants us to get out to a meeting in Denver as soon as possible.”

“She wants both of us?” Charles had a hard time believing that.

Erik shrugged it off. “I sure as hell don’t want to handle it on my own.”

“Of course not. That’s what I’m here for.” Charles said.

“Do you have a bag on hand or at the office ready to go?” Erik asked.

“Um, I’m sorry but I didn’t know that’s something I need.”

Erik nodded. Charles could tell that Erik was just trying to be polite. “That’s fine. There’s something I need to do before we leave anyway.”

“What?” Charles asked.

“I have to feed my cat.” Erik said dismissively.

“Are you serious?” Charles asked. “Or is that like code for committing murder?”

“I’m serious.”

“You have a cat?”

“Yes.”

“That’s so cute.”

“No.”

“Is it a boy or girl?”

“Girl.”

“What’s her name?”

“Jane.”

“Aw, you’re such a ladies’ man.” Charles laughed.

“Shut up.”

“Are you going to be like a cat man? Are you going to collect cats?”

“No.”

“Can I see your cat?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re going home to pack.”

“Can I ever meet her?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because you are annoying me.”

Charles pouted. “Okay. Well, you can’t meet my cat either.”

“You have a cat?”

“No, but when I get one, you can’t meet him.”

“I’m heartbroken.” Erik said deadpan.

Charles started getting out of the cab. “So where do you want me to meet you? St. Louis?”

“Do you want a ride to the airport? I know it’s kind of far to take a cab on your own and fare is usually extra for to and from the airport.”

“That would be great.”

“Then just meet me here. Is twenty minutes reasonable?”

Charles nodded. “I can do that.”

“See you in twenty minutes.” Erik said. Charles ran back to his apartment.  

 

* * *

 

Erik shifted anxiously in his seat on the airplane. “I don’t understand why we can’t fly first class.”

“First class? You think we’re worthy of first class?”

“Obviously. I shouldn’t have to be crammed back here like this.”

“Are you used to taking a lot of work trips?”

Erik nodded. “Comes with the territory.”

“What’s your favorite thing about flying?” Charles asked.

“The free peanuts.” Erik joked.

“No, seriously.” Charles said.

Erik shrugged. “I guess getting to see so much.”

Charles was looking at Erik with a smile and nodded. “That does sound very nice.”

Erik’s expression stayed steadfastly neutral.

“Are you going to do anything to prepare for our meeting? Should I?” Charles asked.

“Yes.” Erik said. “Or, me, not you.” He pulled his laptop out of his bag and turned it on.

“I’d like to help too.” Charles said.

“You can’t really help with something like this.”

“Could I at least prepare somehow.”

Erik nodded. “I guess. You can go through the company background and take a look at the estimates of what they’ll need. Don’t bother being ridiculously thorough, because if you could also find some personal background that would be very useful to me.”

Charles nodded and pulled his laptop out of his bag like it was a secret weapon. “I’m on it.”

“Thank you.”

 

When their cab pulled up to the hotel that they were staying in, Erik checked them in and then turned to Charles. “Do you mind if I sleep for a little while, then we can head out for dinner?”

“I’m sorry, do you sleep?” Charles asked. “I thought maybe you had evolved past that.”

“For the most part, but on occasion I need to recharge.”

“I understand.” Charles said. “Take as long as you need.”

 

Erik took the elevator up to his room and passed out on the bed as soon as he reached it. Meanwhile, Charles was in his room, unpacking his clothes and reading up on the company like Erik asked him to.

 

When Erik woke up, it was almost 8:00 in Denver and he was incredibly disoriented. It took him a moment to pull himself up and force himself to get changed into the pair of jeans and black t-shirt he brought with him. Once more awake, Erik walked to Charles’ room and knocked on the door.

“Hey, are you ready to go out?” Charles asked when he opened the door.

“Sure.” Erik said. “Do you think maybe you want to change?” Charles was still wearing the suit he had worn all day.

“Yeah, of course! I didn’t know if we were going to go out to somewhere more casual.” Charles said. “Just give me a second.” He disappeared behind the door and returned a few minutes later, dressed comparable to Erik’s attire.

“So where would you like to go?” Erik asked Charles.

Charles stared up at Erik. It was a weird thing to be shocked by, but he didn’t expect Erik to take suggestions on plans. “Anywhere is fine.” Charles said.

“I’m sort of feeling steak.” Erik said. “Does that sound okay to you?”

“Absolutely.”

 

Charles tried to make small talk over dinner, but he didn’t really have much to say, so his first attempt was completely about work. “Have you met with clients like this a lot before?”

“Yes.” Erik said. “But why don’t we talk abut something other than business for once?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” Charles started to say.

“Don’t feel bad.” Erik said. “But I think we could bother use a break from the relentless wave of responsibility and deadlines.”

Charles laughed. “Yeah. So, um, since we’re in Denver and people ski here, do you do any sports or activities?”

“God no. I absolutely cannot do team sports and that doesn’t leave a single option that isn’t excruciatingly boring.”

 

. . .

 

After a day of meeting with the clients, the next day they arrived at the airport exactly two hours early. Erik tried to cover it, but Charles could tell that he was happy with their promptness. That is, happy until they got inside the terminal. There were unusually long lines and crowds all around. Erik checked the departure board and saw that everything was cancelled.

“Godammit!” He yelled.

Charles followed Erik to where he was standing. “Oh no.” Charles said. “We need to try to rebook, right?”

Erik nodded curtly. Charles could tell he was deeply upset, and completely understood why. “Let’s get in line to check in, I’ll try to call to get this solved.”

Erik called the travel agent that the firm used while Charles tried to look up alternate flights on his phone.

“Come on,” Erik was saying. “I just want to get home. Yeah, I’ll wait. Thanks.” He turned to Charles. “Anything?”

“There’s one flight that leaves late afternoon. But we’d have a layover, altogether it would take like six hours.”

“Let’s see.” Erik got back on the phone with the travel agent. “Yeah? Sure, okay, I think that sounds good. Do they think it will clear up in time? Jesus Christ. Okay. Yeah, book it. Thanks.”

“So what’s up?” Charles asked.

“It’s a later flight than the one you found, but there’s a better chance that the weather will be better by then. And we have first class seats.”

Charles grinned. “That’s not so bad, right?”

Erik shrugged. “I just want to get home.”

Charles patted Erik on the shoulder. “I know, I’m sorry. I hope we do.”

They stood in the line for check-in for over an hour.

“I can help the next in line.” One of the ticket agents said. Erik walked up and Charles followed him.

“Do you need to rebook your flight?” The woman asked.

“No, we’ve got it. We just need to check in.”

“What time is your flight?”

“6 PM”

“I’m sorry, I can’t check you in now.”

“Are you serious?”

“We can’t check you in more than four hours before your flight.”

“Does it really matter right now?” Erik argued.

“My supervisor was just here telling the last woman, I can bring him over again and he can tell you.”

“There are so many people sitting out here just waiting, and nobody’s going to be able to get in because every fucking flight is cancelled.”

Charles stepped up. “Can you hang on just one quick second?”

“What are you doing?” Erik asked.

“I’ll be right back.” Charles said. “Just keep an eye on me.” He ran over to another one of the check in desks. “Excuse me?” He asked the woman there.

“Yes, can I help you?”

“I heard you check in somebody with a nighttime flight a minute ago.”

“Yes?”

“My flight isn’t until the evening, but I am desperate to get checked in now.”

“Sure.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, there’s no point in making you wait. You’re on time for your flight before it got cancelled.”

“Thank you!” Charles waved Erik over to him. “She’ll check us in.”

“Oh, thank god. Thank you so much.” Erik said.

 

Charles bought a book at one of the little stores in the airport, got food for himself and Erik at the food court, and sat at the gate to relax for a while.

Erik on the other hand was not nearly as calm and content as Charles was. He sat next to Charles, but only briefly poked at the food Charles gave him. After maybe, oh five minutes, of sitting calmly, Erik was back on his feet, staring out the window and pacing.

“I’m sorry,” Charles tried to say for the umpteenth time.

“Not your fault.” Erik said back for the umpteenth time.

“Why won’t you just relax?” Charles asked. “I know this really sucks but there’s nothing we can do.”

Erik sat down next to Charles. “It does really suck.”

“Yeah, I know.” Charles agreed.

Erik stood up again.

“Are you serious?” Charles asked.

“I’m trying to check the weather. See if it clears up.”

“It will clear up when it clears up.” Charles said.

Erik was not impressed by that response.

“I’m sorry.” Charles added.

“Thanks.” Erik said softly.

 

When they got off the plane in Chicago, Erik was visibly tired but didn’t complain once about paying the exorbitant cab fare to drive Charles home.

Charles hesitated getting out of the car. He wanted to say something to Erik but wasn’t sure what the appropriate thing to say was.

Thankfully, Erik spoke up first. “I know this was just your first time taking a trip with me, but I think it went really well and it was nice to have company for once.”

“Thanks.” Charles said, beaming proudly. “I had a great time, being able to learn from you.”

“See you tomorrow, Charles.”

“Goodnight, Erik.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading :) There will likely be many more trips in this fic's future


	11. Losing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dedicated to my very best friend in the world

Charles stood in front of the mirror rehearsing what he was planning on saying. “Erik, can I ask you for a favor?” No, that made it sound too much like something Erik shouldn’t want to do. “Erik, I have a suggestion.” No, that was too misleading. “Erik, don’t you think maybe…” Just no. “Sir.” Charles burst out laughing. Why was this so difficult? “Erik, I was thinking…”

At that moment, the door to the restroom opened. Charles quickly closed his mouth and feigned doing something completely normal. Erik walked in, seemingly unaware of Charles’ soliloquy.

“Oh, hey.” Erik said when he noticed Charles.

“Uh…” Charles didn’t know what else to say. “Bye.”

Erik shrugged. “Bye.”

 

Charles rushed back to his desk and returned to preparing what he wanted to say to Erik, but this time in earnest. He scribbled down his speech by hand and then read through it to memorize it.

“Hi, Erik?” Charles said, knocking on the door to Erik’s office.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“I’ve learned a lot being second chair, but I’m wondering if it’s time that I take the lead. You know, handle the…”

“I know what taking the lead means.” Erik cut him off.

“So is that a yes?”

“Yes.”

“Really?” Charles asked.

Erik sighed. “Yes, really. I have too much on my plate, anyhow. This is as good of a chance to start as any. I’ve got a case that’s going to trial in a couple of weeks that I really would rather not deal with.”

“Wow.” Charles wasn’t sure if he was more excited about the opportunity or that he didn’t have to argue with Erik to convince him. “Thank you.”

Erik’s focus had already slipped away from Charles. He flipped through piles of papers and mumbled “I could have sworn it was here somewhere.”

Charles waited as Erik continued to feel around for the specific set of documents he was looking for. Erik bent over and half-disappeared behind his desk while checking the floor.

“You know what would make this a lot easier?” Charles asked. “A computer system.”

Erik’s middle finger popped up from the floor into view.

“That’s lovely.” Charles responded.

“Here!” Erik said. “Found it.” He handed the folder to Charles.

Charles took it and held on tight. “Thank you so much, Erik. Really, I won’t let you down.”

 

Once he started, Charles could tell right away why Erik didn’t want to deal with the case. A major client’s son had been caught joyriding. It was his third strike, so if he was convicted he would have to do jail time instead of getting off with a fine like he did every time prior. Charles worked on his own until the middle of the afternoon, when Erik stuck his head in.

“How’s it going?” Erik asked.

Charles nodded, despite realizing that there was no way it was winnable. “Good, I think.”

“I’m heading out for an errand. Can you cover my phone for me?”

“Sure.” Charles said.

“Thanks.”

Charles nodded and got back to work after Erik disappeared.

 

Shortly after Erik left, there was another knock on the door. Charles ignored the sound, not wanting to be distracted from the text that he was reading. The knock repeated, louder and accompanied by a throat clearing.

Charles looked up and saw one of the other partners standing there. “Oh! I am so sorry. Hi, how can I help you?”

“We haven’t been introduced.” The partner said with a Russian accent. “I’m Azazel, I’m one of the partners here.”

“Charles Xavier.” Charles said, reaching out to shake Azazel’s hand. “New associate.”

“Yes, since you are an associate, could I get your help with document review for the merger we’re managing.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t. I’m busy on something for Erik.”

“What’s that?”

“My first case.” Charles answered.

“Is that so? Well, alright. You’re busy on something more important. I’ll find someone else.” Charles felt like he heard some amount of passive aggression in that comment, but he had no idea why. Azazel left in the blink of an eye.

 

 

Awhile later, Charles’ phone rang for the first time. He knew it would be for Erik, so he prepared himself to take down a note.

“Frost and Associates, this is Charles Xavier.” He said.

“Hello, may I speak to Erik?”

“He’s out of the office right now.” Charles said. “May I take a message?”

“This is Sebastian from Shaw & Schmidt. I wanted to let Erik know that I enjoyed our conversation last week and I’ll let him know how it goes with the other partners. I think he’d be a great fit over here.”

Charles took the note down and thanked Sebastian, who then hung up. Charles had been through enough job interview processes that he knew exactly what a follow up from a promising interview sounded like. He had no idea what Erik was hoping or planning to do, but to some extent Charles could understand why he would. S & S was considered the best law firm and it would certainly be an upgrade for Erik. But Charles couldn’t help but wonder how that would affect him at the firm if Erik left. Would he be laid off, reassigned to a different partner, or what? Charles forced himself to let it go and focus on his work. Erik wouldn’t be pleased if Charles screwed up because he had gotten distracted, even if his own employment factored into the equation.

 

 

Erik was riding the elevator back up to the office, looking forward to checking in with Charles to hear what kind of progress he had made. The doors opened and Emma was standing right in front of him.

“You were waiting for me?” Erik asked with a smile as he stepped out and passed Emma. “How sweet of you.”

“Why did your associate turn down the offer to work on document review for the merger?”

“Because it’s beneath him.”

Emma glared at him. “He said he was working on his own case.”

“Well, gee, thanks Emma, but I didn’t need a spy. I trusted that he’d do what he was supposed to.”

“Why are you having your associate handle a case on his own?”

“I needed it to get done. He’s handled cases before and I’ll step in if I have to.”

“Erik, you can’t just give your associate big jobs right away. It looks bad. Associates, especially the new ones, have to pay their dues and do some grunt work.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Either you give it to him on your own, or I will make him do it for me on top of the work you give him and I will fire him if it’s not done.”

“Fine. I will handle it.” Erik said and walked back to his office. He didn’t want to. It was a terrible idea, he didn’t know why somebody as smart as Emma would support it, but he knew to pick his battles. And he had more important ones coming up.

 

 

Erik walked straight into Charles’ office. “How’s the work coming?”

“Great!” Charles said. Still a lie.

“Any messages?” Erik asked.

“Just this one.” Charles kept his expression neutral as he passed Erik the note he took.

Erik read it and looked at Charles. “I think I should explain.”

Charles shook his head. “It’s your career.”

Erik ignored Charles. “They reached out to me first. I just wanted to prove to myself, to everybody, that I could be good enough. Even if they make an offer, which I doubt they will, I probably wouldn’t take it. I could just use it to leverage a better deal out of Emma.”

They were both quiet for a minute, both aware that it was certainly not typical a conversation between boss and employee. At last Charles nodded. “Good luck with whatever you decide to do.”

“Thanks.” Erik said.

“Do you need me to do anything now?”

“Yes. If anybody other than me asks what you’re working on, lie.”

“I don’t really feel right being dishonest.”

“It’s either lie or get buried under a mountain of paperwork and never handling a single case on your own.”

“Okay, I’ll lie.”

“Good.” Erik said. “Now get back to that document prep I want done right away.” He added in a louder voice.

Charles sighed and laughed. “Don’t go into acting.” He whispered to Erik.

Erik rolled his eyes and ignored Charles.

 

 

For the next two weeks Charles worked exclusively on his case and Erik was more than happy to let him. Charles let the work make him a little crazy. He knew it would be hard, borderline impossible, but he had to find a way to win.

 

He couldn’t.

 

“We find the defendant guilty.” The foreperson of the jury said.

It should have been inevitable or at least a little expected. But hearing it said, made something in Charles break. He felt like he shared some of the guilt for not doing enough to defend his client.

Everybody was clearing the courtroom. The bailiff took Charles and Erik’s client away. Charles was sitting still, holding his head in his hands, eyes fixed downward.

Erik saw Moira walking hesitantly toward their desk. He could tell that she meant well, but she won and Charles lost. There wasn’t much she could say to lift Charles’ spirits. Erik shrugged at her to convey that sentiment and she seemed to understand because she walked away quietly.

There was nobody in the courtroom then except for Erik and Charles. Erik truly wanted to comfort Charles somehow, but he didn’t have a clue how.

“It’s not your fault.” He tried. “The evidence was stacked against you and the client refused to take a plea. And he was guilty, for the record.”

“That doesn’t really matter, does it?” Charles asked, lifting his head but keeping his eyes down. “I lost.” Finally his eyes met Erik’s. “And you don’t lose.”

When he cried, Charles’ bright blue irises were oppressed by bloodshot white and glassy tears. It was like someone had taken a knife to a masterpiece.

Erik put his hand on Charles’ back and rubbed gently. “I don’t care. Nobody does.”  He knew it looked pretty inappropriate, but nobody was around and it seemed to comfort Charles.

Charles didn’t move while he took a couple of deep breaths. He wiped his face and pulled away.

“You okay?” Erik asked.

Charles looked away again in shame. “We have to get back to the office.”                         

“Don’t feel bad.” Erik said. He meant it about both things, and really everything.

Charles let out a laugh that mixed with a sob.

“Let’s get out of here.” Erik said, pulling Charles up with the hand that was still on him. “How about lunch?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Hopefully now that I'm done with exams I can write even more.


	12. Exposed

The night after his big loss, Charles still felt shitty. He couldn’t sleep, he was wide awake obsessing over whether by the next morning Erik would realize the error of his ways and rid himself of an associate who couldn’t handle his first time arguing in court.

He couldn’t even remember when he finally fell asleep, but it evidently was way too late. When Charles’ alarm went off the next morning, he slept straight through it and didn’t wake up until nearly half past eight in the morning. He scrambled to get dressed and to the office as quick as he could, praying the entire train ride that Erik would be understanding.

 

It wasn’t surprising that the office was full, but the mood did seem very odd. Everyone seemed to be milling about and whispering to one another instead of working. Charles headed straight to Erik’s office to check in with his responsibilities for the day. The most unusual thing of the day; Erik wasn’t in his office. He would have told Charles if he had a meeting or was travelling. Unless, Erik intentionally didn’t tell Charles, in a way of sending him a message.

 

Charles walked back to the reception desk. “Angel, where’s Erik?”

“He’s upstairs in a meeting.”

“We have an upstairs?”

“Yes, have you never wondered where the senior partners and important clients are?”

“Okay, now I am. What’s Erik doing up there?”

Angel looked around at everybody else anxiously. “Meeting with HR and legal and the managing partners.”

“Why?” If HR and legal were involved, it probably wasn’t good. Charles’ first thought was that Erik got in trouble for losing his temper.

“Sensitive pictures of Erik were posted all over the internet.” Angel said abruptly. “That’s honestly the best way that I can put it.”

Charles looked around again, that explained why everyone was standing around and whispering amongst themselves.

“That’s terrible.” Charles said. “How on earth did that happen? He would never do that to himself.”

“You’re probably right, but I don’t have a clue.”

“Do I even want to see them?” Charles asked. He had no intention of invading Erik’s privacy like so many other people were clearly fine with. He just wanted to know just how miserable the situation was.

Angel turned her computer toward Charles. The Drudge Report-like headline read “Hung Jury” in giant bold print. “That doesn’t even make sense.” Charles quipped, but kept reading. Beneath the headline was a picture of Erik outside the courthouse. It looked like it was before Charles had begun working in Chicago if he had to guess. Next to that picture was one of Erik, presumably in his apartment, naked apart from a watermark preventing the publication from being sued for obscenity.

“Shit.” Charles said.

“I know it’s bad.” Angel said.

“I assume that’s what everyone here is talking about?” Charles asked.

She nodded.

“I know I’m new here, so I have no authority. But isn’t there anyone to make them drop it and get to work?”

“Emma will. Erik usually can, but I’m betting that anything he says for a little while is going to fall on deaf ears.”

“When is the meeting going to be over?” Charles asked.

“It will be over when it’s over, there’s really nothing I know.”

“Thanks for catching me up to speed.” Charles moved to Erik’s office to wait for his return.

 

It wasn’t until lunch that Erik came trudging into the office. “Oh, you’re here.” He mumbled, almost not loud enough for Charles to here. Erik glanced up. “It’s clean.” He observed faintly.

“I was waiting for you.” Charles explained. “I needed something productive to do to make life better for you.”

Erik nodded. “Nice of you.”

“How… do you feel?” Charles asked.

“Like I got screwed with my pants on. Or, off, as it were.”

“I’m really sorry.” Charles said. “What’s going to happen? Are you getting in trouble? Do they know who did it?”

Erik sat down and sighed. He looked in pain. “They’re pretty sure it was a computer virus of some sort. I hardly use my computer and I’m careful, so I don’t know how that possibly happened. But to add insult to injury, they’re taking my computer to look for forensics and god knows what else.”

“Are you in trouble?” Charles repeated.

“Well, I’m not going to get disbarred. The big guns want to handle damage control. And it was implied that besides potential remedial classes in how to use my computer, that I can just bury my head in the sand until it’s over.”

“That’s good. I’m glad.”

“It’s going to get worse before it gets better.” Erik sighed. “Do you mind if I eat while we talk? Sitting in a room getting drilled takes a lot out of a person.”

“Of course, go ahead.” Charles said, sitting back.

Erik pulled a salad out from his fridge. “So what else is up?” He asked, feigning nonchalance.

“How are you?”

“Are you my therapist?”

“If you need me to be.”

“Can you give me drugs?”

“No, I would not be qualified for that. But, you can talk to me anyway.” Charles pressed on. “If you want to blame me, you can do that too.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t want to blame you.” Erik paused and sighed.

“Yeah?”

“I just really didn’t envision my career getting derailed by a trigger happy hacker and the one time I answered the phone without clothes on.”

“Is that really what happened to you?”

“Yes, they had me tell them the full details upstairs. At least then they can get a better sense of what to look for now. I was getting out of the shower and my phone rang. I was expecting a call that I didn’t want to let go to voicemail, so I ran out to get it.”

“That’s understandable, you didn’t have time to grab a towel.”

“If only. Don’t deprive yourself of my Charlie Chaplin moment.”

“So you had a towel?”

“I did. And I also have hardwood floors, which I slipped on. I answered the phone and, in a moment of excellent forward thinking, dried the floor.”

Charles smiled. “At least there’s a good story, and it’s not like you’re not in the habit of being caught with your pants down, as it were.”

Erik nodded. “No courtroom for a little while, we don’t want the jury being prejudiced in any way.”

“So you’re okay? You’re not upset?”

“I’m very much not a fan of this feeling. Someone that I don’t even know took advantage and now everybody in the world knows and they’ll know forever. It’ll be a tool in anybody who wants it’s arsenal until I die, maybe after.”

“But don’t you think it’ll get old after awhile? There’s a week of serious discussion, jokes for a month. And then only the occasional joke. Until you die.”

“Can’t wait.”

Charles smiled. He wanted to give Erik a rest from the topic. “You know, I saw your cat.”

“Is that a euphemism?”

“No, your cat was in one of the pictures.”

“So you have.”

“She’s very cute.”

Erik nodded. “She’s really quite something.”

“How old is she?”

“Three.”

“Did you get her as a kitten?”

“Yes.”

“What are we doing until they let us back in court? Can we still have meetings?”

“Probably only with long term clients. And the rest will be prep, things that can either be done alone or just by you.”

 

...

 

“One more question.” Charles said.

“Yes?” Erik asked.

“What religion is your cat?”

“Excuse me?”

“Your cat, Jane. Is she Jewish like you?”

“Are you fucking kidding right now?”

Charles grinned. “A little.”

“For argument’s sake, can we say she’s Atheist?”

“You can, is that your final answer?”

“Why do you need to know this?”

“I’m just wondering. Are you sure she’s not Jewish?”

“Well, she doesn’t work on Shabbat. So really who knows.”

Charles laughed. “You’re very funny. What’s your answer?”

Erik sighed. He had no idea why he was choosing a religion for his cat, but he trusted that Charles had something resembling a good reason for asking. “Jewish, I guess.”

“Okay, thank you. Enjoy the rest of your lunch.”

  
* * * 

 

The next week, the firm had a holiday party--holiday, not Christmas, considering that a great many of the clients and attorneys were Jewish, not just Erik--in the event space of the Chicago Art Institute.

Erik was hanging back by the food table, sipping champagne while everyone else mingled around the room.

Charles walked up to Erik, he didn’t have any champagne yet, but he did have something behind his back.

“Having fun?” Charles asked.

“Oh, you bet.” Erik answered. “So much fun that I’m considering going into event planning full time.”

Charles was about to give his gift to Erik but Erik cut him off first.

“Just a heads up, we’re going to California tomorrow.”

“Fun!” Charles exclaimed. “And warmer!”

“Yes, that’s exactly why we’re going.” Erik quipped. “I assume you can handle getting to O’Hare in time for a nine o’clock flight?”

Charles nodded. “So since you’re being fun and delightful, why are we going? You’re not still in the doghouse, are you?”

Erik chuckled. “Perhaps. A major tech company just went IPO and we’re going to convince them to sign with us.”

“How does a company go public without legal representation?” Charles asked.

Erik scoffed. “Of course they have counsel, genius, but we’re better and we’re going to convince them of that.”

“Sounds good. I have something for you.” Charles held up a little shiny silver gift bag.

“You shouldn’t give me a gift.” Erik said. It wasn’t particularly professional, but even worse Erik hadn’t gotten anything for Charles.

“Not for you. It’s for Jane.”

Erik smiled. “Really?”

“You don’t need to get so excited, you can’t share it.” Charles said.

Erik straightened his face. “Do you want me to open it now or when I get home?”

“Open it now.”

Erik pulled the bag open and looked inside, there were blue and white balls of yarn. “Are you serious?”

“Had to make sure I got the correct color scheme.” Charles explained.

“God forbid you just pick neutral colors.”

“It’s the holidays, so yeah.”

“Thank you for giving me this.” Erik said. “I mean, not me. But thank you for giving me this to give to Jane.”

“You’re welcome.” Charles said. “It’s not a big deal. I just wanted to tell you that I appreciate the way you’ve treated me as your associate.”

Erik scoffed. “You make it sound like I favor you or something.”

“No, not like that.” Charles didn’t want to be accusing Erik of anything. “I just meant you’ve been generally pleasant to me and I wanted to be generally pleasant in response.”

“Well thank you. This gift is generally pleasant and I appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome. Happy holidays, Erik.”

“Happy holidays.”

  
  


Erik had to tote around the silly gift bag around until he got home. He left the party a little earlier than everyone else, because why not, using his cat as an excuse to get home. Jane was sitting under Erik’s table, looking more or less disinterested when he walked in.

“Hey, girl.” Erik said. “I’ve got something for you.”

Jane watched Erik, wondering where the food was.

Erik pulled one of the balls of yarn out of the bag and rolled it over to her. She seemed extremely interested.

“So, my associate gave this to me for you.” Erik murmured, as he pet the already distracted cat. “He’s pretty nice. I hope he sticks around.”

  
* * *

 

The next day, Erik and Charles were on the plane headed to San Francisco. Erik had headphones in and was resting his eyes. He wasn’t a big fan of plane rides, and they don’t get better if the flight is longer.

Charles tapped Erik’s arm. Erik peeked his eyes open and looked over at Charles. Charles tapped Erik again. Erik sighed and pulled his earphones out. “What do you need?”

“What are you going to wear to the meeting?” Charles whispered.

“A suit. What kind of question is that?”

“Some of these companies consider a suit and tie a bad thing. It sends the message that you’re uptight and conformist.”

“Then what do you recommend I wear instead?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then I’m going to stick with what I have. I’m a lawyer, why in god’s name would you not want your lawyer to dress like a lawyer?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is that all you wanted to talk about?”

“Are you listening to music?”

“No.”

“What are you listening to?”

“It’s a podcast.”

“What podcast?”

“NPR: Your Legal Rights.”

“Really?” Charles asked.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I like to hear what’s going on.”

“You know, if you’re going to be a square who listens to NPR on planes--”

“And on the way to work and sometimes during lunch.”

“You could listen to podcasts about music or movies. You know, something not lame, something that isn’t your career.”

“Thank you I appreciate the advice on how to spend my spare time from my employee.”

 

* * *

 

“This floor is where our dev ops and our infrastructure teams work.” The woman giving Charles and Erik a tour explained. Neither of them could remember or understand what her position was.

“None of your employees work in offices?” Erik asked.

“No.”

“Does that lead to any privacy issues?”

“What do you mean?”

“If two coworkers are mad at each other, can they ever be left alone or given any space or distance from each other?”

“Coworkers don’t fight here.”

“That’s any awfully big presumption.”

The woman said nothing in response. “And here is the second floor east break room.”

“It’s not really a room since nothing here has walls, just a break area.”

“Okay, it’s a break area.”

“And there’s beer in here as well?”

“Yes.”

“Is drinking alcohol encouraged here?”

“Yes, for our social events and happy hours.”

Erik nodded.

“Here we were. This is the conference room. You can make yourselves comfortable, I’ll get the Vice President.”

 

When they were alone, Charles turned to Erik. “Are you intentionally being difficult?”

“No.” Erik deflected. “I have concerns.”

“But we want them to want us.”

“Of course. But that starts with treating them seriously.”

“They won’t like it.”

“They’ll like it when we win.”

 

The Vice President of the company walked in, he was wearing jeans and a polo shirt. Charles caught Erik’s eye and shrugged slightly.

“Good morning, gentleman.” The VP said. “I’m Henry Oh, I’m the VP of Operations here.”

“Erik Lehnsherr.”

“Charles Xavier.”

“How are you doing?”

“Very well, thank you.”

“How did you like your tour?”

“Your offices are very nice. Not quite what we’re used to in Chicago, but I guess it’s to be expected when you have warm weather and sun.”

“I was told you had some concerns.”

“It was evident that you have a great company and a good product, I’m just worried that the elements of the culture here are opening you up to liability.”

“Yes?”

“For one thing, providing alcohol in every one of your break rooms. What if a minor is here and drinks? What if a person gets drunk and crashes their car on the way home?”

“Most of our employees take public transportation or cabs.”

“And what if someone falls into a ditch while walking home? Gets assaulted?”

“Our employees are smart. We trust them.”

“That’s a mistake, quite frankly.”

Oh nodded, “Do you have other fundamentals of our company culture that you’ve decided need to be changed after being here for an hour?”

“I’m not wild about the open office format.”

“Oh my god.” Oh hit the table. “Mr. Lehnsherr, you have absolutely no place representing our company nor anybody in this industry.”

Charles wasn’t exactly surprised that he didn’t take criticism well, but he didn’t expect the response to be quite so strong.

“You do fantastic work here, you shouldn’t leave yourself open to liability like this.”

“You don’t get it, do you? Those little things that you say are liabilities are the core of what we believe in. And quite frankly, we don’t like you.”

Erik sat back and crossed his arms.

“We don’t want suit and tie BigLaw representing us, we don’t want you anywhere near us. We don’t need an uptight asshole here to trash the way we do business.”

Erik laughed mirthlessly. “I guess this is going to be a short meeting.”

“Yes it is.”

“Thank you inviting us to meet with you.” Charles said.

“Do you validate parking here?” Erik asked.

 

* * *

 

At the airport, Charles expected Erik to head to the gate, but instead he raced off in a different direction. By the time Charles caught up to him, Erik was sitting at a bar and downing a shot of whiskey.

“You know,” Charles said, sitting down at the stool next to Erik. “If you’re trying to get into day drinking for the sake of the client, I think you only need beer.”

Erik tried to muster up something close to a smile or laugh, but he couldn’t manage it and merely exhaled sharply.

“Would I be wrong in concluding that you are upset?” Charles asked.

“No, you would not be.” Erik answered.

“Because they didn’t like you?”

Erik didn’t respond.

“I will say that I thought it was pretty terrible behavior and hypocritical of them to say.”

“It’s the client’s call whether they want to hire us.” Erik said as if was reciting from some sort of guide book. His voice was completely devoid of passion and his eyes looked far away.

“If you’d like anybody to talk to, I’m right here.” Charles said.

Erik didn’t say anything still. He hadn’t drunk much, but he could feel the alcohol going to his head. It was telling him that Charles had a lovely face and exquisite lips. Erik shook his head to clear those thoughts and stood up. “I think I’ll head to the gate now.”

Erik was stumbling as he took a few steps, Charles hurried to help him find his way without falling.

Once sitting down again, Erik turned to Charles. “Did you notice how many women were working there?”

“Are you on the prowl?” Charles joked.

“No, but did you notice?”

“Not very many.” Charles answered.

“Yeah I caught that too. It’s almost hard to believe.”

Charles nodded absently. Then a second later he turned back to Erik. “Wait, you think there’s something there?”

Erik nodded.

“This isn’t just revenge because they were mean to you, right?”

“Of course not.” Erik said with a smile.

“So what do we do now?” Charles asked.

Erik patted Charles’ leg. “Wait.” He answered simply.

 

 


	13. On the Road Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! I meant to have this completed closer to Christmas or at the very least New Year's, but unfortunately I got sidetracked. I'm trying to launch into a bigger plotline with bigger stakes, I hope it works out.

On Christmas Eve, Charles tried to warm himself up by his stove, wishing he had a fireplace in his tiny cold apartment. It was his first Christmas in Chicago and as excited to experience new things as Charles usually was, there was a pang of sadness to be all alone at such an important time. His only friend so far, Moira, had plans. There was one person he could still try to reach out to.

Charles pulled out his phone and stared at it for a few minutes. Yes, it could be weird. And yes, it could backfire. But the alternate was being alone on Christmas when he didn’t have to be. So he called.

“Erik Lehnsherr.”

“Hi, Erik. It’s Charles. I know you probably don’t celebrate Christmas, but any chance you’d want to hang out together tomorrow?”

He heard Erik take a deep breath on the other end. “Charles, it’s a very nice suggestion. But I don’t think that would be very appropriate.”

“Right.” Charles said. He understood, he really did. But a little sad and foolish feeling. 

“I’m sorry.” Erik said. “It’s really not personal.”

“I know.”

“I hope you have a good Christmas.” Erik said.

“Thank you, Erik. I hope you have fun. See you in a couple days.”

 

The next morning Charles didn’t want to sit around just watching Christmas movies, so he went to the South Side and found a homeless shelter  Handing out food to people who needed it made him a little less lonely at least. 

 

“I’m sorry about blowing you off.” Erik said again when they came back from the holiday. 

“It’s okay, it really is.”

“Did you have a nice Christmas?”

“Yes I did. I volunteered at a homeless shelter. It felt better.” Charles said.

“Oh, you volunteered?” Erik asked.

Charles nodded.

“Now I feel even worse. I’m the grinch who refused the chance to help the homeless on Christmas.”

“You didn’t. Don’t feel bad, I didn’t know this was what I was going to do yet. I hadn’t made up my mind until morning.”

“That’s good, then. But I think it’s great that you’re volunteering. You’re a good person.”

Charles smiled. “Thanks. What’s up today?”

Erik checked his watch. “I have a meeting with Emma in five minutes. I’m just killing time right now.”

“What’s the meeting about?”

“Just a regular… check-in, update, kind of thing. Nothing unusual.” Erik said.

He sounded nervous, but Charles couldn’t figure out why. “Good luck.”

“Thanks, I think I’ll head there now.” 

 

Erik arrived at the conference room before Emma, and sat down. The meeting was in fact to discuss Charles’ performance thus far. Erik hadn’t wanted to tell Charles what it was about because he didn’t want Charles to worry. 

The door opened and closed, followed by the solid sound of Emma’s heels on the ground. “Good morning, Erik.” She said.

“Good morning, Emma.” Erik said, standing up to greet her.

“You can relax. You’re not even the one getting reviewed.”

Erik laughed. “You’re right. I don’t want to screw it up for Charles either.”

“That’s unusually compassionate of you.” Emma joked.

“Well, I guess he’s rubbing off on me.”

“That’s great.”

Erik nodded. “Where would you like me to start?”

“Why did you want to hire him, again? I mean, since we had to pretty much threaten you to hire an associate. I’m curious why you were able to get behind this one.”

“He was the only one out of the hundred or so applications you gave me that had any sort of real experience.”

“I don’t think it was a hundred applications, drama queen.”

“Maybe not. It was still awful.”

“Did you interview anyone else?”

“No.”

“Did you even call anyone else?”

“No.”

“And what would you have done if he didn’t work out?”

“I thought setting the office on fire would be a good start.”

“Erik.”

“I don’t know, I guess we would need to go through another hundred applications to find another needle in the haystack who’s not a total idiot.”

“Good to know you’re being just as reasonable as ever.”

“I’m the model of reasonability.”

“So how did he impress you?”

“I liked talking to him, he knew his case law, and I thought he’d make a good lawyer.”

“How’s he working out?”

 

There was a knock on the door interrupting the conversation. Charles tapped on the glass conference room door, holding a notebook in his other hand.

“Fantastic timing.” Emma commented, smirking.

“It’s important, I hope.” Erik said as he stood up to open the door for Charles. “What is it?”

“I’m really sorry to be barging in. I think I have a great opportunity for us, you, but I need to get an answer.”

“Okay?”

“University of Alabama football cut two of their star players this morning.”

“I’m sorry, did you mistake me for someone who cares about sports news?”

Charles shook his head. “I think it was because they were in a relationship. With each other. Not just in relationships.”

Erik cocked his head, interested but still skeptical. “You think or you know?”

“I have a pretty strong hunch. The thing is, Erik, if I’m right, and I think I am, they would absolutely have grounds to sue, and we would be way ahead of anybody else who might represent them.”

“Hm.”

“You want to do it, right?”

Erik did. “But it’s so out on a limb.”

Charles tried widening his eyes to plead Erik. “It could be worth it.”

This wasn’t a decision Erik could make alone, certainly not with Charles playing his emotions like a violin. “Pitch it to Emma. Whatever she says goes.”

Charles followed Erik to the conference table and sat next to him, across from Emma. “Hi. Again, I’m sorry to interrupt your meeting. Would you be interested in us pursuing a case where we could sue one of the biggest college football teams for discriminating based on sexual orientation?”

Emma stared at Charles, waiting for the punchline of the joke. Once she was convinced he was being serious, she looked at Erik. “This is exactly the kind of case we all need.” Back to Charles. “So what’s the catch?”

“Right now I’m just making an inference into the reason, and I have no idea if the plaintiffs would want to sue.”

“Also, it’s in Alabama.” Erik whined. 

“I feel like it would get enough nationwide attention to negate that part.” Charles said.

“Yes, I agree.” Emma said to Charles. “If you can get the individuals to hire us for this case, then I say you two should absolutely go down and do whatever you need to.”

“Great!” Charles said. “I’ll go work on that.” He ran out of the conference room.

Erik watched Charles vanish into the stairwell, admiring and envying his optimism. “You know there’s no way he’s going to get that case.” He said to Emma. “Even if he convinces the kids to sue, which is a huge if, they’ll just take the case to a better shark and we won’t get so much as credit for the idea.”

“I know. But that kind of approach might eventually work out.”

Erik nodded. Emma didn’t share Charles’ noble hopefulness, but she did yearn for the cases that could bring huge publicity opportunities. 

“Alright. Back to your thoughts about his progress.”

 

Charles ran back to his office. He looked up a slew of numbers that he thought might lead him to the player he was trying to reach. The first three tries were busts, and then finally on the fourth he got somewhere.

“Summers residence, this is Scott. May I ask who’s calling?”

“Hi, I’m Charles Xavier. May I speak to Alex?”

“Hang on a second.”

Charles waited for a minute.

“I don’t want to talk to reporters.”

“Alex?”

“Yes, I’m not making any statements.”

“I’m not a reporter, I’m a lawyer.” Charles said.

“What do you want?”

“I want to say that I think what’s happening to you is really unfair.”

“Um, okay. Thank you.”

“I think you should consider suing the school and I’d like to represent you.”

“What can I sue them for?”

“Discriminating against you and your partner.”

“How do you know that?” Alex asked.

“I’m sorry if I’m crossing a line or jumping to conclusions. I don’t think it’s fair and I want to help you, if you want it.”

“Why do you want to help? What’s in it for you?”

“I don’t know you very well, but I want to be your friend, so I’ll be honest with you. I got into law so that I could change the world for the better. I want to help you get some justice and then maybe we can both help the next gay kid who wants to play football.”

“Yeah, I get it.” Alex said. “Can I talk to Darwin and get back to you? I don’t want to do this without him.”

“Yes, of course.” Charles said.

Alex hung up and left Charles waiting patiently. He began to type a message to Erik update him on the phone call, but he didn’t want to speak too soon and disappoint Erik. Instead he just sat and thought things through.

A few minutes later his phone rang again. “Charles Xavier.” He said, answering.

“Charles, this is Alex. I’ve got Darwin here.”

“Hi.” Charles said. “It’s nice to hear from both of you.”

“Do you think you can explain what you plan on doing?” Alex said. “We think we want to get on board, but we want to make sure you’re not going to screw us over.”

“I promise you I will not do anything to wrong you.” Charles said. “But let me explain what my boss and I would do for you…”

  
  


“Who’s going to screw it up, you or him?” Emma asked. There was a little sparkle in her eye that she was trying to tease Erik. But it wasn’t a completely outrageous question either.

Erik hemmed and hawed until he was saved by the bell. Charles knocked on the door again. There was no mistaking his wide smile from even a mile away. Emma waved him inside immediately.

“They said yes!” Charles said.

Emma successfully hid her shock, Erik less so. “Yes to suing? Or yes to having us represent them?” Erik asked.

“Both. Everything that I asked. I had the right reason, it took a little convincing but they do want to sue and with us.”

Erik grinned. He didn’t know why sometimes he had an impulse to hug or kiss Charles when he was happy with his work. Probably just because it was something they do on television, even though Erik never watched television.

“We still need it in writing.” Emma said, bringing them both down to earth. “But otherwise, that sounds pretty good.”

“Should we…?” Erik started to ask gesturing at himself and Charles.

“Of course, go. We’re done.” Emma said. “You’ve got more important things. We’ll start putting together your travel and office arrangements.”

Erik walked with Charles out of the room and back down the stairs to their own offices. “Good. job.” Erik said.

Charles beamed with pride. “Thank you.”

  
  
  
  


Charles and Moira were walking together in Lincoln Park. Since Charles was leaving for Alabama in the next few days, it was likely their last time together for awhile. Charles described the fear and excitement of trying to obtain the new client. Moira seemed genuinely interested, but cut him off in the middle of a sentence.

“Is that your boss?” She pointed.

It sure looked like Erik from their angle; same height and sharp dressing. “Erik?” Charles called.

Maybe-Erik did not respond at all. Charles was puzzled by that, so he tried again. “Erik?” He said a little louder.

Still nothing. Charles ran up to Maybe-Erik and tapped his shoulder. “Erik?”

Erik turned around. “Oh, hi Charles.”

“Did you hear me calling?” Charles asked.

“I thought that might have been for someone else.”

Charles laughed. “You’re really quite funny.”

Erik looked down at the ground. “So, uh, what are you up to?”

“Moira and I are enjoying a walk in the park.” Charles gestured over to Moira.

Erik raised his arm to wave politely. 

“Do you want to walk with us?” Charles asked.

“Oh, no. No, thank you.” Erik said. 

“Alright. Enjoy your weekend.”

Erik nodded. “See you on Monday.”

 

Charles walked back to Moira. “That was Erik.” He confirmed.

“How did it go?” Moira asked.

“I don’t know why, but I just never expected that I would work for someone shy.”

“What do you mean?”

“Erik’s maybe the most reserved person I’ve ever met. And because I’m sometimes incredibly short-sided I didn’t foresee ever working for someone who was.”

Moira nodded. “That makes sense. You might expect more of an extrovert in that position. I know most of my bosses have been. Does it work?”

“Erik’s great. He’s great at what he does and he’s actually a pretty nice guy. I just have to take small steps to get to know him. Like it didn’t occur to me that it might freak him out a little if I ran up to him in the park and started talking to him.”

“If I weren’t afraid of him I might have done that too.”

“I’m trying to keep slowly chipping away at him.”

“You know, I think you’ll reach whatever sort of candy center he has.”

Charles chuckled. “I hope so.”

“Maybe he’ll talk to you in public.”

Charles and Moira both laughed. “Lofty goals.” Charles joked.

  
  


“First class passengers, you are now welcome to board flight 1890 to Birmingham.” The announcement at the gate said.

Erik stood up and gestured to Charles to lead the way down the walkway to the plane. 

“You’re happy about this, aren’t you?”

“About the seats, I am delighted. About the destination, much less so.”

“Admit that you’re a little happy about the destination as well.”

“I’m resigned.” Erik said.

“And I just want to confirm one time before we get there, and then I’ll never bother you about it again, you’re not going to do it?”

“Do what?”

“What I was talking about earlier. Were you listening to me?”

“Yes, but what are you worried about me doing specifically?”

“Breaking our word to our client.”

“Of course I’m not going to do that.”

“Good.”

“Why would you think I would?”

“I don’t necessarily think you will I just want to make sure you won’t.”

“I promise I won’t.”

“Good.”

Erik allowed Charles to take the window seat and sat down next to him. “Why are you so worried?”

“Just because I care about them and I gave them my word.”

“I care about them too, Charles. That’s why we’re flying to Alabama.”

“I know.”

“You know I care about my clients.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Good. I intend on keeping both of our words.”

Charles nodded. They both sat quietly for a second. “I’m sorry.” Charles said.

“What for?”

“I didn’t mean to imply that you’re not the type to keep a promise or care about his clients.”

“It’s okay.” Erik said.

“Thanks, but I still did that and that was wrong of me.”

Erik smiled. “Thank you, that’s nice of you.”

  
  


Charles simultaneously followed Erik through the lobby of their hotel while looking around at the walls and ceiling like a tourist. Erik made no snide comment about Charles and walked ahead to the front desk.

“Hi, I’d like to check in. I believe my firm made arrangements for a long term stay.”

“What’s the name on the reservation?”

“Lehnsherr.”

“I’m sorry, I’m having trouble finding it. Can you spell your name?”

“L-E-H-N-S-H-E-R-R.”

“Okay, I see we have one room.”

“I’m sorry, one room?”

“Yes, with two queen beds.”

“It should have been two rooms with one bed each.”

“I’m very sorry, there must have been a mistake.”

“Can you change it?”

“No, I’m sorry, there are no other rooms available.”

“I’ll be back in a second, hang on.” Erik grimaced and walked over to Charles. “So we’ve got an interesting conundrum.”

“What’s going on?” Charles asked.

“They booked us in one room.”

“Oh.” Charles didn’t know what else to say. “How many beds?”

“Two. Don’t worry, it’s not quite that bad.”

“What do you want to do?” Charles asked. “Can we get the rooms here or somewhere else?”

“Not here. We could try another hotel, but we might end up even more empty handed. I don’t know if I want to end up like Joseph and Mary.”

“You’re Jewish, you’re not allowed to make that reference.” Charles joked.

“Pardon me.” Erik said, smirking.

“I can make this work if you’d like to.” Charles said. “I know we’re not really that close. But I’ll give you your space, privacy, and quiet.”

Erik laughed nervously. “I know this is an awkward situation.”

“Don’t worry.” Charles promised Erik. “It’s fine, it won’t be weird. We’ll be able to work together more.”

“Thanks, Charles. You’re being great about this.”

Charles nodded. “You bet.”

Erik walked back to the front desk. “We’ll take it.”

“Thank you very much for being understanding, Sir, we’d like to offer you both a hundred dollar gift card to our restaurant.”

Erik smiled at Charles and walked with him to their room. It was a fairly standard two-bed hotel room, but it was certainly large enough for the two of them. 

“Which bed do you want?” Erik asked.

“Window, if you don’t mind.” Charles answered. “I like to see the sun in the morning.”

“Go ahead. Take whatever drawers you need too.”

“Oh, I don’t need any. I’ll just keep my stuff in my suitcase.” 

“Don’t be silly, Charles.” Erik said. “You can have half the drawers and you should them. And half the hangers too.”

Charles nodded. “Thanks, Erik.”

“You’re welcome.” Erik said, starting to unpack. 

Charles followed his lead and filled up the drawers while Erik used the closet. “Do you have a nickname, by the way?”

“Excuse me?”

“Do you go by anything else? Rick? Er?”

“No, I do not.”

“Do you want to?”

“No, I do not.”

“Okay.” Charles smiled. “I’ll stick with Erik then.”

“Thanks.” Erik smiled back.

 

When Erik was done unpacking, he set himself up at the desk while Charles sat on his bed with his computer. They were both quiet for a few hours until Charles felt like he could no longer keep his eyes open.

“Do you mind if I turn off my light now?” He asked Erik.

“Of course not. I probably should go to sleep as well.”

“Goodnight, Erik.” Charles said as he turned off his light and sank into bed.

“Goodnight, Charles.”


	14. My Cousin Erik

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Getting started with their case in Alabama isn't completely smooth sailing, but it isn't all bad either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been forever and I am truly so sorry.

 The first morning in Birmingham, Erik woke up promptly with his alarm. He quickly silenced it and took a shower without alerting Charles. When Erik was dressed and ready, he considered waking Charles, but instead opted to wait in the lobby. There was plenty of time and certain sleeplessness in the coming weeks.

 

Nearly a half hour later, Charles was just beginning to wake up. He opened one eye groggily and upon seeing the sun, tried to open both but quickly despaired of the bright light. “Oh no.” He groaned. As Charles sat up, his hair went in every direction. “Oh, shoot.” He said to no one in particular when he noticed that Erik was gone. Charles scrambled to get dressed and decent before seeking out Erik, where he found him sitting by the elevators reading a newspaper. Erik was wearing a suit, Charles was afraid he was underdressed in just a polo and khakis, but Erik caught sight of Charles before he could run back to the room to change.

 

“Sorry I’m late!” Charles said.

“Don’t worry about it.” Erik answered. “We’re not in a rush.”

Charles smiled at the floor. “Thank you. It won’t happen again.”

Erik rose to his feet. “Ready to go?”

“Should I go back and put on something more--”

“Don’t worry about it.” Erik said. “I don’t care at all.”

“Then yes I’m ready.” Charles said and followed Erik out to the curb where they waited for the valet to retrieve the car.

“Do you have any interest in driving?” Erik asked.

“I don’t know how to.” Charles said. “Drive, that is. I can’t drive.”

“Shit, I didn’t mean.” Erik said, “it’s fine. Don’t worry about it, I’m fine.”

“I’ll make it up to you somehow.” Charles said, getting into the passenger seat of the car.

Erik handed Charles a map. “Give me directions to where we’re going.”

Charles held the paper limply. “What is this?”

“It’s a map.” Erik answered, slowly, missing the confusion.

“What century do you live in?”

Erik sighed. This conversation again.

“I don’t use my phone for directions.”

Charles scoffed. “You don’t get it.”

“I really don’t. Sorry that my backward ways bother you.”

Charles laughed. “No, it’s adorable. Don’t ever change. But give me a second to enter in the address.”

 

Charles reached for the radio button while Erik was driving. “You seem like a news guy, do you want me to put on NPR or something?”

Erik laughed. “No, it’s fine.”

“Do you listen to any music?” Charles asked. “What do you like?”

Erik cracked a smile, but refused to open up. “I don’t know. Nothing in particular.” He looked around. “Could this be any more backwoods?”

“At least we’re on a physical road.” Charles responded, not dwelling on Erik’s evasive tactics.

“You have a point there.” Erik said.

“I didn’t exactly peg you to be such a city boy.”

“First of all, you shouldn’t be pegging me for anything.” Erik joked. “And I’m not. It’s just something about being in a place like this I don’t like.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I feel like I’m going to get _My Cousin Vinny_ ’d.”

“That’s ridiculous.” Charles said. “You’re a lawyer, that makes you Vinny. I’m Marissa Tomei, and _they_ ,” Charles gestured in the general direction the car was headed. “Are the two youts.”

Erik chuckled. “Comforting.”

“That’s what you get for comparing yourself to a movie from the nineties.”

 

Erik and Charles stood on the Summers’ folksy front porch. Erik looked hesitant as he knocked on the door.

“This won’t be different from your usual cases.” Charles pointed out to Erik.

“I hope so.”

A blonde woman opened the door. “Are you the lawyers?” She asked.

“Yes, I’m Erik. This is Charles.”

“I’m Katherine Summers, Alex’s mother. Come on in.” Mrs. Summers led them inside. “How old are the two of you, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“I’m 34,” Erik answered.

“29.”

“Are you qualified to handle my son’s case?”

“I’ve handled many wrongful termination cases.” Erik answered. “Many of them against large companies.”

Mrs. Summers seemed little comforted by that. Erik quickly recognized that look he saw often; the indication that his demeanor was discomforting to his clients. He was somewhat used to it and had in fact lost clients that way. Returning to Chicago all the way from Alabama would be a new level of embarrassing for Erik, however.

Thank god at that moment, Charles spoke up. “I’m a little less experienced than Erik, but I can promise you that we’re here only to help. I know I probably seem out of my depth, but that’s nothing new. I called your son to offer to take on the case because I care and I was pretty sure that we’d be able to provide more expertise than other attorneys might.” His pleasant, lightly accented, voice and manner allowed him to charm away the damage done by Erik’s abrasiveness.

Mrs. Summers smiled. “They did mention that you stood out somehow. Why don’t you take a seat and I’ll get you something to drink while you wait.”

Erik sat down and smiled at Charles, giving him a nod of approval. “Thank you.” He mouthed.

Charles nodded back. “Of course.”

 

When Alex and Armando, who quickly explained he preferred to be called Darwin, entered they were likewise as put off by Erik as Mrs. Summers was. Charles felt guilty, and a little bit insubordinate, as he kept cutting Erik off or repeating him just so that it could from him instead of Erik. What made it worse was that Erik clearly could tell what Charles was doing and why, and didn’t seem to mind all that much. Eventually Erik just sat back and listened while Charles did the talking.

 

Erik was beyond relieved that Charles was able to pick up how to make the interview work almost instantly. When Erik asked a question, Charles would act as translator and repeat it or a rephrase it in a way that sounded much better. It worked well enough. Finally Erik, through Charles, had asked all the questions he felt he needed answers to before getting started on preparing the case.

He looked at Charles and said. “I think we’re done here.”

Charles turned back to the clients and with a wide smile said. “Great! That’s all we need you to go through now. We’ll be in touch with updates.”

 

 

Charles waited to ask anything until they were back in rental car. “Was that okay? Did I talk too much?”

“It’s fine, I think you spoke just enough and it really helped.”

“Thank you.”

“In fact, I think you should be playing a bigger role than usual in this case.” Erik said.

“Are you sure?” Charles asked. “This is your biggest case to date.”

“As much as I’d like all the credit, the clients seem to trust you a lot already and you’re quickly working up a rapport with them.”

“If that’s what you’re worried about, I can get them to like you more.” Charles said.

“I’m not entirely sure that’s possible, but it’s not even worth it.” Erik said. “You’ll be the point person on interacting with them.”

“Erik, that’s a big responsibility. Are you sure you want me to deal with it?”

“Yes, just be you. Be the go-between for us so that they stay happy and cooperative. I want you in charge because I know you don’t run the risk of alienating people that I do.”

Charles looked over at Erik, who was clenching the steering wheel tightly. “Are you okay?”

“Of course.”

“It would be a totally reasonable thing for you to be upset about.” Charles said. “I’m practically your roommate, you can tell me how you really feel.”

Erik laughed. “I’m not upset, I’m used to it.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously. It’s not the first time or even the tenth time that I’ve come across like an asshole. It is the first time that you’ve been around to turn the situation around.”

Charles didn’t want to say something glib or insensitive by saying thank you or accepting the compliment. For nearly a minute he was quiet, until he decided on an appropriately respectful thing to say. “You’re not a bad guy, you know.”

For a second it seemed like Erik was just going to ignore that entirely. “Maybe I am, maybe I’m not. But it only matters that I’m a good lawyer.”

Charles was sure there was no way that Erik actually believed that. “Let’s find somewhere to get food. I know you’re super thin, but you do eat, right?”

“What do you have in mind?”

“Sushi?”

“Okay, sounds good.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“You eat sushi?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“I don’t know. Like maybe because fish are kin or something.”

“No. And what the fuck?”

“You’re always so normal, I know you probably have some weird philosophy.”

“Well if I do, it’s not that fish are friends—“

“—Kin.”

“Kin, sorry.” Erik shook his head. “Hypothetically if I was the kind of person who doesn’t eat animals because they’re relatives of ours, why would fish be where the line is?”

“I don’t know, this is hypothetical you that we’re talking about, you have to answer for yourself.” Charles answered simply.

Erik looked over and stared at Charles.

“Eyes on the road, mister.” Charles snapped playfully. “Do you want us to get into an accident?”

“Nooo.” Erik answered. “But why don’t you unbuckle your seatbelt and make yourself comfortable?”

“Very funny. You know that you would be held liable for my injury.”

Erik looked over at Charles again, wondering how he knew that.

“Young people get into a lot of car accidents.” Charles explained solemnly.

Erik nodded quietly. “Mood killer.” He whispered.

Charles smiled. “Sorry. So we established that you’re not a weird kind of vegetarian that only doesn’t eat fish on principle.”

“Correct.”

“I feel like I know more about you already.”

 

The inside of the restaurant was dimly lit and nearly empty. Erik and Charles had plenty of privacy.

“You should tell me more about yourself.”

Erik looked up from the menu, the angle and lighting emphasized the sharpness in his eyes. “Why?”

“You’re interesting. And I’m an open book, you’re practically padlocked.”

Erik looked as if he was thinking about that for awhile. “I’m allergic to pineapple.” He offered.

Charles smiled. That was the lamest information possible, but he appreciated the effort. “How about your favorite movie?”

“I guess _Titanic_.”

“Not _To Kill a Mockingbird_ or _A Few Good Men_ or something like that?”

“For a lawyer you sure how some stereotypical views of lawyers.”

“Yeah, I’m like Matt Damon in _The Rainmaker_.” Charles joked. “What was your first case?”

“My first case that I was ever on was a company was being brought up on criminal charges after a single employee sort of went rogue and they were contending that they had no knowledge nor had they been negligent. My first solo case was some kind of a property dispute, Homeowner’s Association type of crap.”

“Sounds exciting.”

Erik smiled. “I guess so.”

“For this case, do you think it will be your typical wrongful termination suit?”

“No, I think that would be the wrong approach to take. A couple years ago, the NLRB ruled that college athletes are employees but only in private universities. To argue wrongful termination would shift the focus to a very long drawn out debate on athletes as employees which I think we want to steer away from for everyone’s sake.”

“Yeah, absolutely.”

“So it’s better to look at it from a Title IX perspective. But that’s still a little uncertain. I think our surest bet is to actually look at the school’s code and handbook. My bet is that the school in general makes some guarantees to treat all students fairly, if we can argue that any of this language is a contract then by cutting them from the football team the school is in breach of contract.”

“You think that will work?”

“I think what we want is a firm enough legal leg to stand on and then hope the public relations disaster can be intimidating enough.”

“I feel like you’ve already skipped to the pounding the table part.”

Erik laughed. “No, not yet. Just gearing up in case we need to.”

“I’m sorry if I brought you a case that you didn’t want.”

“No, don’t be sorry. It’s a worthwhile case it just might be harder than you, or even I, realized in the beginning. We’ll find a way to win.”

“Sounds perfect.” Charles lifted his water up and clinked his glass against Erik’s tiny teacup.

 

The next morning, Erik woke up again with his alarm, showered, changed, and still found Charles asleep. He looked at Charles and felt conflicted about waking him up. He looked peaceful, but they needed to get to the courthouse first thing, not to mention he felt a little uncomfortable touching Charles in any capacity, but Charles would want to be woken up.

Erik cleared his throat and tapped Charles’ shoulder. Charles mumbled and started to push himself up.

“I was thinking that we could leave once you’re ready?” Erik asked.

Charles nodded and although he felt much like a zombie, he proceeded to get changed.

 

The second day went similar to the first day, only better because it afforded Erik to do where he really excels; paperwork and research. Although it was stupid and hard to believe, that was not a skill Charles particularly felt like he obtained. He was too desirous to actually do things and affect change that he didn’t have the laser skill that Erik had. Charles felt lucky because he actually got to see it in action and more importantly, learn from Erik.

 

That night they rented a pizza and took it up to the room while working on mapping out a game plan. While working and eating, they created a map and diagram of every potential argument, piece of evidence, or witness that spanned most of the room.

Erik stepped back. “I think this is a good starting game plan.”

“As long as we don’t accidentally step on it and lose everything.”

“It’s like that game when the floor is lava but instead the floor is our entire case.” Erik added.

“We’ll be careful, and I’ll take pictures tomorrow.”

“Sounds good. Goodnight.”

Charles extended his hand for a high five. “Come on, you know what to do.” He said when Erik looked at him skeptically.

Erik slapped Charles’ hand reluctantly. “Goodnight, Charles.”

“Goodnight, Erik.” Charles got into bed feeling giddy. About the case. Mostly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and your patience and your feedback!


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